In Senate floor last night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) praised the ICC for issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Mr. President.
00:06 Senator from Vermont.
00:07 Mr. President, there has been a lot of attention and controversy attached to a recent action
00:16 by the International Criminal Court, the ICC.
00:21 The core purpose of the ICC is to prosecute the most serious international crimes, genocide,
00:31 crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
00:38 I believe that it is very important that all of us support accountability for these crimes
00:45 and the important mission of the ICC.
00:48 Mr. President, last year, the ICC declared that President Vladimir Putin of Russia was
00:57 in violation of international law and that he was a war criminal.
01:04 The ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and one of his senior officials saying there are
01:11 reasonable grounds to believe that they had committed the war crime of unlawful deportation
01:20 and transfer of population for their systematic kidnapping of thousands and thousands of Ukrainian
01:28 children.
01:30 I supported the ICC decision.
01:34 And in fact, that is the tip of the iceberg of what Putin has done in Ukraine.
01:41 Putin started the most destructive war in Europe since World War II.
01:47 He has bombed civilians and devastated civilian infrastructure, killing at least 30,000 civilians
01:55 and displacing millions more.
01:58 Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded as a
02:05 result of Putin's horrific invasion of Ukraine.
02:12 On that occasion, when the ICC declared Putin a war criminal, the United States government
02:21 welcomed the ICC decision.
02:24 A White House spokesperson said, and I quote, "There is no doubt that Russia is committing
02:30 war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible
02:37 must be held accountable.
02:40 The ICC prosecutor is an independent actor and makes his own prosecutorial decisions
02:47 based on the evidence before him.
02:50 We support accountability for perpetrators of war crimes."
02:56 That is what a U.S. government spokesman said in March 2023, and I agree.
03:03 In my view, Mr. Putin is, in fact, a war criminal.
03:07 Mr. President, we live in a world of increasing division, tension, and hostility.
03:17 Around the globe, countries are dramatically increasing their military budgets.
03:23 More countries are attempting to gain nuclear weapons and other dangerous weapons systems.
03:30 It is in times like these that we most need international war.
03:37 Without it, we will have an even more violent world where might makes right and war criminals
03:46 can act with impunity.
03:50 In recent years, the ICC has attempted to hold governments and political leaders accountable
03:57 for crimes against humanity.
04:01 That is what they do, and that is what they are supposed to do.
04:06 All wars are terrible, and very often civilian casualties are unavoidable.
04:14 But after the horrors of the Second World War, countries throughout the world came together
04:22 to try to establish rules to govern the conduct of war and to limit civilian casualties.
04:32 The ICC's role is to enforce these limits.
04:38 Mr. President, yesterday the ICC prosecutor announced that he was requesting arrest warrants
04:45 for three top Hamas leaders, including Yaya Sinwa, the group's leader in Gaza.
04:54 To my mind, Sinwa and his Hamas accomplices are clearly war criminals.
05:02 The horrific October 7th terrorist attack on Israel began this war and included the
05:07 mass murder of 1,200 innocent men, women, and children, the taking of hundreds of hostages,
05:15 and sexual violence against captives.
05:20 These war crimes are well documented, and very few people would dispute the merits of
05:27 those charges.
05:29 Mr. President, the ICC prosecutor also asked for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister
05:37 Netanyahu and Defense Minister Golan.
05:41 The ICC charges focus on the use of starvation of civilians as a method of war, as well as
05:54 international attacks against the civilian population.
05:57 Those are the charges.
05:59 The use of starvation of civilians as a method of war, clearly a war crime, as well as intentional
06:09 attacks against the civilian population.
06:12 Specifically, the prosecutor says that Netanyahu is responsible for, quote, "depriving civilians
06:19 of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies
06:25 as provided for under the Geneva Conventions," end quote.
06:30 Now many people here in the Beltway in Washington have responded negatively to this decision
06:39 from the ICC prosecutor.
06:42 It seems that some folks here were comfortable with what the ICC did in terms of Putin and
06:51 in terms of SINWA, but not with Netanyahu.
06:56 Some have argued that it is unfair to compare the democratically elected head of the Israeli
07:03 government to Putin, who runs an authoritarian system, or SINWA, the head of a terrorist
07:10 organization.
07:12 But that is not what the ICC has done.
07:18 In fact, the ICC prosecutor has looked at what each of these leaders has done, looked
07:26 at their actions, and then compared those actions to established standards of international
07:34 law.
07:35 In other words, the ICC is not making some claim of equivalence, as some have charged,
07:44 but is in fact holding both sides in this current war to the same standard.
07:51 Yes, democratically elected officials can commit war crimes.
07:59 Let me repeat, democratically elected officials can commit war crimes.
08:06 The ICC is doing its job.
08:09 It's doing what it is supposed to do.
08:12 We cannot only apply international law when it is convenient.
08:18 And the independent panel of international legal experts the ICC appointed to help with
08:24 this case unanimously, unanimously agreed with the charges.
08:30 Mr. President, people may be uncomfortable to see the Prime Minister of Israel charged
08:38 with war crimes.
08:41 But let us take a hard look at what he has actually done.
08:48 And we must determine whether his actions meet the standards of being a war crime.
08:58 In seven and a half months, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed and almost 80,000
09:05 injured.
09:06 Thousands more are still under the rubble.
09:13 But their bodies have not been fully identified.
09:17 Some 60% of the victims are women, children, or the elderly.
09:23 More than 250 aid workers have been killed, including 193 UN staff, more than in any previous
09:33 conflict.
09:34 Mr. President, there are 2.2 million people living in Gaza.
09:42 More than 1.7 million of them have been forced from their homes.
09:48 75% of the population.
09:50 I'm trying to think of my own state, what it would be like if three quarters of the
09:55 people, 400,000 people, were just driven out of their homes.
10:00 And these are by and large poor people, desperate people.
10:03 In just the last two weeks, more than 900,000 have been displaced, many of whom have been
10:09 forced to move many times during this war.
10:13 Chased out of one place, gone to another place, chased out of that place, gone to another
10:16 place.
10:17 And many of these people are children.
10:19 Gaza is a very young population.
10:22 Many of them are elderly.
10:24 Many of them are sick.
10:28 These are people who have been forced out of their homes and moved and moved and moved
10:33 again and again, often without adequate food, without adequate water supplies, and certainly
10:42 without adequate health care.
10:44 Mr. President, when we talk about war crimes, we talk about attacks on civilians, let's
10:51 understand Gaza's housing stock has been demolished.
10:58 And again, I try to think of my own state, what it would mean if 60% of the housing was
11:05 destroyed.
11:06 Now, if these people who have been chased from their homes, displaced from their homes,
11:13 are ever able to return to their communities, where are they going to live?
11:20 Because 60% of the housing units in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including 221,000
11:26 housing units that have been completely destroyed, leaving more than a million people homeless.
11:34 Entire neighborhoods have been wiped out, both by bombing and by planned detonations
11:37 of explosive charges.
11:38 In other words, we're looking at a war.
11:42 We understand that Hamas is a very difficult enemy, often uses civilians to protect their
11:48 own people.
11:49 We understand that.
11:50 But what we're talking about here is over 60% of the housing units in Gaza have been
11:55 destroyed.
11:56 Hard for me to believe that there was a terrorist in every one of those buildings.
12:01 Israel has destroyed the civilian infrastructure of Gaza, wiped out their ability to have electricity,
12:10 virtually no electricity in Gaza right now, virtually no clean water, and raw sewage is
12:16 running through the streets, spreading disease.
12:19 Now, if that's not an attack on civilians, I don't know what is.
12:27 The healthcare system in Gaza has been systematically annihilated.
12:31 21 hospitals have been made inoperable.
12:35 In fact, of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, only four have not been damaged by bombardment.
12:41 The four out of 36 not damaged by bombardment, raided by the Israeli military, are closed.
12:48 More than 400 healthcare workers have been killed.
12:51 Well, what do we say when we have a war in which the healthcare system is annihilated
12:59 at a time when you have tens and tens of thousands of people who are wounded, many of them seriously?
13:06 Mr. President, the education system in Gaza has been virtually destroyed.
13:14 Every one of Gaza's 12 universities has been bombed.
13:20 Every one of the 12 universities in Gaza has been bombed.
13:25 More than 400 schools have suffered direct hits, and 56 schools have been totally destroyed.
13:32 Today, 625 children in Gaza have no access to education at all.
13:39 And I'll tell you something else.
13:40 When you talk about what's going on in Gaza, what is not talked about almost at all, I
13:44 think I read one article on this, I want you to think about the psychic damage done to
13:49 children.
13:50 The children who see housing being destroyed, their parents or relatives being killed, see
13:56 drones flying around them, some of which have guns, being pushed out of their homes, deafening
14:03 noise, inadequate food, inadequate water, pushed, shoved into any place and every place.
14:11 What kind of psychic damage?
14:12 If there's one child in Gaza that does not suffer psychic damage from this horror, I
14:18 will be very surprised.
14:20 Mr. President, as a result of the destruction and Israeli policies restricting the entry
14:29 of humanitarian aid into Gaza, more than a million people today face catastrophic levels
14:37 of hunger, and Gaza remains on the brink of famine.
14:43 Hundreds of thousands of children face starvation.
14:48 And now, more than seven months into this war, Israel's invasion of Rafa has severely
14:53 disrupted the humanitarian relief operation, closing the two main border crossings and
14:59 making it almost impossible for the UN to access its warehouses or distribute aid.
15:05 Very little aid has gotten in for more than two weeks.
15:08 Bakeries have had to shut down and hospitals are running low on fuel.
15:13 Just today, today, the UN announced that it had been forced to halt all food distribution
15:19 in Rafa after running out of supplies.
15:22 The World Food Program said that, quote, "Humanitarian operations in Gaza are near collapse," saying
15:30 that if food and other supplies don't resume entering Gaza in massive quantities, famine-like
15:37 conditions will spread, end of quote.
15:40 Now Mr. Netanyahu's been on TV today and elsewhere.
15:44 He denies it all.
15:45 "Ain't true," says Mr. Netanyahu.
15:49 He claims that Israel is deeply worried about the civilian population, worried about the
15:54 children, and that Israel is not blocking humanitarian aid at all.
16:00 Not at all.
16:02 Well it turns out that the United Nations and virtually every other humanitarian group
16:10 involved in the humanitarian disaster in Gaza strongly disagrees with Mr. Netanyahu.
16:19 Now we can trust the words of a prime minister under criminal indictment in Israel, or we
16:27 can trust the people whose function in life is to provide humanitarian aid.
16:34 UN Secretary General says that much more aid is urgently needed to, quote, "to avert an
16:43 entirely preventable human-made famine," end quote, and that there is no alternative to
16:49 the massive use of land routes, end quote.
16:53 Tiffany McCain, the wife of our former Republican colleague John McCain, who is now the head
17:00 of the World Food Program, said of Gaza that, quote, "There is famine, full-blown famine,
17:06 in the north and it is moving way south," end quote.
17:09 A month ago, more than 50, five-zero humanitarian organizations, called on Israel to allow greater
17:17 humanitarian access and stop unnecessarily restricting aid.
17:22 That's 50 humanitarian organizations.
17:26 Mr. Netanyahu says one thing, but 50 organizations who are desperately trying to get food to
17:34 hungry people say something else and let the world decide who is telling the truth.
17:40 And this group of humanitarian organizations included Catholic Relief Services, CARE, Mercy
17:46 Corps, Oxfam, Save the Children, Refugees International, and scores of other well-respected
17:54 humanitarian organizations.
17:56 They say that Netanyahu and his team have blocked humanitarian aid.
18:03 Mr. President, our colleagues, two of our colleagues, Senators Van Hollen and Senator
18:11 Merkley, visited Rafa in January, and I heard their presentation to the Democratic Caucus.
18:21 Upset by the unreasonable Israeli restrictions on aid, they talked about trucks being inspected,
18:27 inspected, sent back, that things that should have been allowed to get through were not
18:32 allowed to get through.
18:33 They said afterward that the U.S. must, quote, "Demand that the Netanyahu government lift
18:39 the impediments to delivery of basic goods needed to sustain life in Gaza," end quote.
18:45 Netanyahu denies it.
18:47 Two of our colleagues who were there say that Israel was blocking aid.
18:52 The United States government also disagrees with Netanyahu.
18:57 USAID Administrator Samantha Power said, quote, "Food has not flowed in sufficient quantities
19:04 to avoid this imminent famine in the south and these conditions that are giving rise
19:09 already to child deaths in the north."
19:14 In March, Secretary of State Blinken said, quote, "The bottom line is food is getting
19:18 in but it is insufficient," end quote.
19:22 In April, he said, "There has been progress," quote, "but it is not enough.
19:25 We still need to get more aid in and around Gaza," end quote.
19:29 And in a formal report this month, the State Department said that, quote, "Israel did not
19:34 fully cooperate with the United States government efforts and United States government supported
19:39 international efforts to maximize humanitarian assistance flow to and distribution within
19:45 Gaza."
19:46 I got a kick out of hearing Mr. Netanyahu this afternoon.
19:50 He talked about airlifts.
19:51 My God, they're supporting airdrops.
19:54 They're supporting food coming in from the sea.
19:57 Well, the reason that the United States is spending millions of dollars getting food
20:02 in from the sea is precisely because Israel is blocking the ability to get trucks in.
20:08 And the reason that Jordan and other countries in the United States are doing airdrops is
20:13 once again because trucks cannot get through.
20:16 Netanyahu is taking credit and yet the reason we're having to do those is precisely because
20:21 of the policies of his government.
20:24 President Biden himself has said, quote, "That a major reason why distributing humanitarian
20:29 aid in Gaza has been so difficult because Israel has not done enough to protect aid
20:34 workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians.
20:38 Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians," end quote.
20:43 President Joe Biden.
20:45 So it is fair to say that most of the world disagrees with Mr. Netanyahu.
20:54 Mr. President, think about all of that destruction.
20:59 Think about the tens of thousands of civilians killed, the schools and hospitals blown up.
21:07 Take a look at the pictures of emaciated children starving to death while food just sits miles
21:14 away.
21:15 It's interesting to my mind because we don't see enough of those pictures.
21:19 And maybe that has something to do with the fact that Israel, the Israeli military has
21:24 killed dozens and dozens and dozens of journalists.
21:28 I just met with some journalists last week, a young man who happened to come from my own
21:32 state of Vermont, who had no doubt that he was targeted along with other press people,
21:39 big press symbols on their coats, and they were attacked.
21:47 He was slightly injured.
21:48 One of his colleagues was killed.
21:50 Another one was severely injured.
21:54 Now if you add all that stuff up, are these actions war crimes?
22:00 Yeah, I believe that they are.
22:03 I believe that there is substantial evidence that the extreme right wing Israeli government
22:09 led by Netanyahu has used starvation as a weapon of war and has clearly targeted civilians
22:17 and civilian infrastructure.
22:20 As I think we all agree, I certainly do, Israel had the right to defend itself against the
22:27 Hamas terrorist attack of October 7th.
22:31 But it did not, and this is where we get into the issue of war crimes.
22:35 Yes, you have the right to defend yourselves.
22:38 Yes, Israel has the right to go after Hamas.
22:41 Very few people doubt that.
22:44 But Netanyahu and his government do not have the right to wage an all out war against the
22:50 children, against the women, against the innocent people of Gaza.
22:58 And for that, there must be consequences.
23:03 What the ICC has done is important, not only for the global community in the sense that
23:10 we cannot allow the human race to descend to barbarity.
23:15 Somebody has got to say, look, war is terrible.
23:18 It's a little bit embarrassing as a human being that we've been at war for thousands
23:22 of years, do not seem to make much progress in eliminating war.
23:26 But if there is war, let us learn from what happened in the past and do our best to protect
23:33 the women, the children, the innocent people.
23:37 So Israel had a right to defend itself against a terrible enemy in Hamas, but it does not
23:42 have the right to wage an all out war against the people of Gaza.
23:52 Now what is this, what the ICC is doing is important for the world.
23:58 It's to tell leaders all over the world, dictators, people in democratic countries, that if you
24:03 go to war, you just cannot wage all out war against civilians.
24:08 That's what the ICC is doing.
24:09 That's important.
24:11 But it is also important, Mr. President, for those of us in the United States.
24:17 Our nation claims to be the leader of the free world, free world.
24:23 And at our best, we try to mobilize countries to uphold international law and prevent crimes
24:29 against humanity.
24:30 That is what we do and have done.
24:32 But Mr. President, how can or how will the United States be able to criticize any country
24:42 in the world, whether it is Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, or anyone else, any other country
24:49 in the world?
24:51 If we pretend that what is happening in Gaza, if we actually believe what Netanyahu is saying,
25:00 if we turn our backs and ignore the crimes against humanity that are being committed
25:06 in Gaza right now, what credibility will we ever have in criticizing the actions of any
25:14 country, no matter how terrible those actions may be?
25:19 Because people will say, oh, really?
25:21 You're attacking China or Turkey or anybody else?
25:24 Really?
25:25 You're really deeply concerned?
25:26 But apparently, for Netanyahu, it's a lie.
25:30 We don't believe it.
25:31 And I don't want to see this great country of ours be in that position.
25:35 I want to see this country respected all over the world as a country that does believe in
25:40 human rights, that does believe in international law.
25:45 So the ICC, as I see it, is trying to uphold international law and minimum standards of
25:53 decency.
25:56 Our government should do no less.
25:58 I yield the floor.
26:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]