Chris Van Hollen Accuses Netanyahu Government Of Trying To Remove Palestinians From Gaza And West Bank

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke in support of legislation that would block Israeli arms deals.

Transcript

00:00Senator from Oregon, and I rise.

00:05Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following senators be permitted to speak

00:09prior to the scheduled roll call vote.

00:11Senator Van Hollen for up to 10 minutes, Senator Durbin for up to 2 minutes,

00:15Senator Risch for up to 5 minutes, and Senator Sanders for up to 5 minutes.

00:19Without objection.

00:21Thank you, Mr. President.

00:22And I rise to oppose the transfer of over $675 million of U.S. taxpayer money

00:30to finance 1,000-pound bombs and 20,000 fully automatic rifles

00:37and other offensive weapons to the Netanyahu government.

00:41The humanitarian situation in Gaza has gone from horrible to hell on earth.

00:47Yesterday, we reached the grisly marker of over 60,000 people killed in Gaza,

00:55over half of them women and children, and the number could be much higher.

01:00More than 133 people have died of starvation, over 80 of them children, most of them this month.

01:08Experts have been warning about the threat of famine in Gaza for months,

01:12ever since the Netanyahu government imposed a total blockade

01:16on all humanitarian assistance going into Gaza on March 2nd.

01:21This is a man-made, preventable crisis, and the solution is clear.

01:27The Netanyahu government must immediately allow the U.N.-led distribution system

01:32to resume delivery of aid into Gaza to avert a full-blown famine.

01:38I have long said that Israel is completely justified in its war against Hamas,

01:44which murdered over 1,200 people and seized over 250 hostages on October 7th.

01:51And we must not rest until every remaining hostage comes home,

01:55and there must be no more October 7th.

01:59But the Netanyahu government is not justified in imposing collective punishment

02:05against all of the people of Gaza to pay for the sins of Hamas.

02:11And yet, that is what is going on as it uses food and humanitarian aid as a weapon of war.

02:18There are now a half million people facing famine-like conditions in Gaza.

02:24But they're not just numbers.

02:26Colleagues, this is an awful, awful picture.

02:31But we have to look at what's happening in Gaza.

02:37This is baby Zanab.

02:39She weighed 6.6 pounds when she was born five months ago.

02:43She was 4.4 pounds when she died a few days ago.

02:47Her life could have been saved with a special type of baby formula,

02:52but none of that formula can be found in to Gaza.

02:57It wasn't let in.

02:59For months, the Netanyahu government has been blocking thousands of truckloads

03:03of life-saving aid that could save babies like Zanab.

03:08And yet, the Netanyahu government is denying what every human being can see,

03:12and they're denying the humanity of people suffering.

03:17Just three days ago, Benjamin Netanyahu said, and I quote,

03:21there's no starvation in Gaza.

03:24Even Donald Trump, who's given Netanyahu a blank check, called out that lie.

03:30He said, there is real starvation in Gaza.

03:33You can't fake that.

03:35The World Food Program says it has enough food to end the crisis,

03:39but the Netanyahu government won't let them deliver all of it.

03:42And last week, they blocked almost half of the aid convoys

03:46that the WFP requested permission to bring in.

03:51On July 27th, the editorial board of Haaretz,

03:54Israel's longest-running newspaper, wrote simply, and I quote,

03:58Gaza is starving and Israel is responsible, unquote.

04:02This chart from the Wall Street Journal tells the story.

04:10As you can see, back here in March,

04:14the Netanyahu government imposed a total blockade for months

04:18on all food and humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

04:22After several months, they began to let a little trickle of aid in.

04:28But they did not allow the deliveries to resume

04:32through the tested distribution system

04:35that had been run by the United Nations

04:36and supported by trusted organizations like the World Food Program.

04:41Instead, they replaced it with an organization

04:44that goes by the name of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,

04:47but there is nothing humanitarian about it.

04:51It is a shadowy private organization

04:53backed up by mercenaries and the IDF.

04:57The food distribution blocked by Israel

05:00had over 400 aid distribution points.

05:04The GHF operation has only four,

05:08and they're not always open.

05:10The operation has become a death trap.

05:12When you have four sites to feed two million people,

05:15it's not surprising that thousands of desperately hungry people

05:19are surging to get what they can.

05:21And as they have surged, it's well documented

05:24that many have been shot and killed,

05:26sometimes by GHF security contractors,

05:29more often by IDF forces.

05:32The UN Secretary General said, and I quote,

05:34any operation that channels desperate civilians

05:37into militarized zones is inherently unsafe.

05:40It's killing people, unquote.

05:42That should be obvious to all of us.

05:44And yet the Trump administration

05:46is using $30 million of U.S. taxpayer money

05:49to fund that death trap.

05:51And it's sending more taxpayer dollars

05:53to fund bombs to the Netanyahu government

05:56to continue the devastation of Gaza.

05:59Colleagues, this must end.

06:01The Netanyahu government must immediately allow

06:03U.S. tested U.N. distribution systems

06:08to resume operations

06:09and quickly surge food to starving people.

06:13It's important to note that the Netanyahu government

06:15claimed it was replacing the U.N. distribution system

06:18because Hamas was systematically diverting food

06:21intended for civilians for its own purposes.

06:24From the start, that was a pretext and a big lie.

06:28The U.N. distribution system

06:29had strong safeguards to prevent

06:32any significant diversion to Hamas,

06:34and they were working.

06:36Cindy McCain, the WFP, said

06:38her organization saw no evidence

06:40of any effort of Hamas to loot aid trucks.

06:44Israeli military officials

06:45told the New York Times in a story

06:47in just the last couple weeks,

06:49there's no such proof.

06:50In fact, they said, and I quote,

06:53the U.N. aid delivery system

06:54was largely effective in providing food

06:56to Gaza's desperate and hungry population, unquote.

07:01An internal U.S. government analysis

07:03that just came out in the last few weeks

07:05found no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas.

07:10That was also the testimony

07:11of the former U.S. special envoy

07:13for humanitarian issues, David Satterfield.

07:17So why did Israel dismantle a system

07:20that was kind of working

07:22and replace it with one that's killing civilians

07:24as they try to get food?

07:27The simple reason is also horrifying.

07:31It's that the Israeli government

07:33wants to use food as a weapon of war

07:36and for population control.

07:39They opened four aid sites,

07:40mostly in the South,

07:41to displace Palestinians

07:43and move more in that direction.

07:46The Israeli government is trying

07:47to herd the Palestinian people

07:49into concentrated enclaves

07:50as a prelude to pushing them

07:52out of Gaza entirely.

07:55It's not a secret plan, colleagues.

07:58It's been right out there in the open.

08:00In fact, in February of this year,

08:02President Trump said he wanted

08:03to remove Palestinians from Gaza.

08:05And the Netanyahu government

08:08and the prime minister himself

08:09embraced the plan,

08:11which, by the way,

08:11had been previously proposed

08:13by members of his right-wing coalition.

08:17In fact, recently,

08:18his heritage minister said,

08:20as others have quoted,

08:21that the government was, quote,

08:22rushing toward Gaza being wiped out

08:25and driving out the population.

08:28Colleagues, this is part

08:30of a coordinated campaign

08:31by the Netanyahu government,

08:33a government that has declared

08:35the removal of Gaza's population

08:37as the strategic goal of the war.

08:40That is ethnic cleansing

08:41by any other name,

08:43supported by American taxpayer dollars.

08:46The extremists

08:47in the Netanyahu coalition

08:48do not just have their eyes set on Gaza.

08:51As we speak,

08:52Israeli settlers are encroaching

08:53further and further into the West Bank,

08:56killing more and more Palestinians

08:58who live there.

08:58It's important to note

09:00that one of the arms sales

09:01we're discussing

09:02is the transfer of 20,000

09:04fully automatic rifles

09:05to the Israeli national police

09:08headed by one of the most extreme members

09:10of the government, Ben Gavir.

09:12Somebody who handled out rifles

09:14to settlers a little while ago

09:16without having any idea

09:17where they're going.

09:20On top of that,

09:21back in February,

09:23President Trump suddenly revoked

09:25all U.S. sanctions

09:26against extreme settlers

09:28in the West Bank

09:28that had been put in place

09:29by the Biden administration.

09:31And that sent a terrible message.

09:34In just the first six months

09:36of this year,

09:36we've seen the highest rate

09:37of settler attacks in years.

09:40One of those happened on July 11th

09:42when violent settlers beat to death

09:45a 20-year-old Palestinian-American citizen

09:47from Florida

09:48while he was visiting his family.

09:50His name was Saif,

09:52and he's the seventh American citizen

09:54killed in the West Bank

09:55since January 2022,

09:57and the fifth in just the last 19 months.

10:00Some killed by Israeli settlers,

10:02others by Israeli security forces.

10:05Just this week,

10:06a Palestinian activist

10:07who helped make

10:08the Oscar-winning documentary

10:10No Other Land

10:11was shot and killed

10:12by a violent settler

10:13who had been sanctioned

10:15under the Biden administration.

10:16The sanctions

10:17that the Trump administration withdrew.

10:19And meanwhile,

10:20on July 23rd,

10:21just a week ago,

10:23the Israeli Knesset

10:24approved a symbolic resolution

10:26that supported annexing

10:27the entire West Bank,

10:30a place where 2.7 million Palestinians live.

10:33Colleagues for decades,

10:35peacemakers on both sides,

10:38have hoped to make

10:39the West Bank and Gaza

10:40a foundation for a Palestinian state.

10:42We need to make sure

10:45that we don't support

10:46these efforts

10:47that undermine

10:48peace and security

10:49in the region.

10:51Children are starving

10:52before our eyes.

10:53Colleagues,

10:54if ever there was a time to act,

10:56it's now.

10:57It's overdue,

10:58but let's act now

10:59and support

11:00the resolutions

11:02put forward

11:02by Senator Sanders.

11:04I yield the floor.

11:05Mr. Durbin.

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