Sanders to force vote on potentially freezing military aid to Israel  

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will use a little-known provision in the Foreign Assistance Act to force the Senate to vote Tuesday afternoon on a measure that would freeze military aid to Israel unless the State Department produces a report on potential human rights abuses in Gaza.  

If adopted, Sanders’s resolution would require the State Department to report any human rights violations committed during Israel’s blockade and invasion of Gaza in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israeli civilians.  

U.S. assistance to Israel would be frozen if the State Department fails to produce a report after 30 days.  

The resolution has little chance of becoming law because it must pass both chambers and be signed by President Biden.  

Sanders introduced his resolution on Thursday to force a floor debate on what he has called the Netanyahu government’s “indiscriminate and disproportionate military operations” in Gaza since the Oct. 7 attacks. 

Sanders has also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime for blocking much humanitarian assistance from reaching Gaza, calling the blockade a “serious violation of international law.”  

The Vermont senator can force his resolution to be discharged from the Foreign Relations Committee with a simple majority vote. The resolution is privileged and cannot be amended or filibustered.  

“In essence, we will be voting on a very simple question: Do you support asking the State Department whether human rights violations may have occurred using U.S. equipment or assistance in this war? This resolution is not prescriptive — it does not alter aid to Israel in any way. It simply requests that the State Department report on how our aid is being used,” Sanders argued on the Senate floor last week. 

Sanders has emerged as the Senate’s fiercest critic of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 24,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian officials. 

Earlier this month, he called on Congress to withhold more than $10 billion in military funding for Israel, denouncing Israel’s military response as “immoral.”  

He has also criticized the extensive use of U.S.-supplied bombs and artillery shells in Gaza, noting that two-thirds of the civilians killed have been women and children.