On the Senate floor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) slammed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and said he wouldn't attend his remarks to Congress.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, yesterday in an interview with Fox News, Speaker Mike Johnson said that I,
00:12and I quote, was parroting the talking points of Hamas, end quote, and that I and others,
00:20quote, stand with Hamas and the Ayatollah, end quote.
00:26Well, that, of course, is an absolute lie.
00:30As I've said many times, I believe that Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed
00:38an atrocious act when it began this war by attacking Israel on October 7th, killing 1,200
00:47innocent men, women, and children, and taking more than 200 hostages, many of whom are still
00:54being held in captivity today.
00:57Further, as I have said on numerous occasions, I think that the Hamas leader, Yahya Semua,
01:07is a war criminal and should be arrested.
01:11Now, I'm not quite sure that those are the talking points that Hamas uses.
01:19But what the Fox interview did get right is that I believe it is a very sad day for
01:26our country that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited by leaders from both political
01:36parties to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
01:43Israel, of course, had the right to defend itself against the horrific Hamas terrorist
01:51attack of October 7th.
01:54But it did not, and it does not, have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian
02:03people.
02:05Mr. President, two days after the war began, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said,
02:16and I quote, I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip.
02:23There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel.
02:27Everything is closed.
02:29We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly, end quote.
02:37We are fighting human animals, that's his definition of the Palestinian people, and
02:43we are acting accordingly.
02:45Mr. President, that is what the Israeli Defense Minister said, and tragically, that is exactly
02:56what the right-wing extremist Netanyahu government has done.
03:01And let me put some detail into exactly what that means and whether anyone really believes
03:11that Prime Minister Netanyahu should be a guest of honor of the United States Congress
03:20and the American people.
03:23Mr. President, over the last eight months, almost eight months, Netanyahu and his extremist
03:30government have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians and wounded over 82,000.
03:39That is 5% of the population of Gaza, and 60% of those who have been killed or wounded
03:50are women, children, or elderly people.
03:55Netanyahu's war machine has driven 1.7 million people from their homes, 75% of the population
04:03of Gaza.
04:05And I would like the American people to think about that.
04:07Think about your community.
04:09Think about your state.
04:11Think about what it would mean if 75%, three quarters of your population, were driven from
04:21their homes, and most of these people are poor, and they leave their homes not knowing
04:28where they are going with nothing but what they could carry in their hands.
04:39Think about that incredible level of desperation.
04:43Three quarters of the population driven from their homes, carrying a few bundles of clothing
04:49or food or whatever it may be.
04:52Further, Netanyahu's government has damaged or destroyed over 60% of the housing in Gaza,
05:01leaving more than 1 million people permanently homeless.
05:06You know, there is a lot of talk in the media and among the pundits about the day after
05:12the war ends, but let's be clear.
05:17For over 1 million people, there is no day after in which they can return to their homes
05:28because their homes, their housing units, have been destroyed.
05:35And it's not just the housing stock of Gaza that has been destroyed.
05:41Netanyahu and his extremist government have destroyed the civilian infrastructure of Gaza,
05:47obliterated water and sewerage systems, and denied electricity to the people who live
05:55there.
05:57Defense Minister Gallant, in his statement that I read a moment ago, said, quote, I have
06:02ordered a complete siege of the Gaza Strip.
06:05There will be no electricity, end quote.
06:07Well, they have kept their word.
06:10Imagine living month after month with no electricity or clean water and seeing sewage run out onto
06:20the streets.
06:22That is life for the people of Gaza right now.
06:28Mr. Netanyahu, the gentleman invited by Mr. Johnson and the Democratic leadership here,
06:36Mr. Netanyahu and his government have annihilated Gaza's health care system.
06:41And I have talked to doctors, American doctors who have been there, who talk about the systematic
06:47destruction of their health care system.
06:50Twenty-six hospitals have been knocked out of service and more than 400 health care workers
06:59have been killed, 400 health care workers killed.
07:02In other words, there are some 80,000 wounded people in Gaza and hundreds of thousands of
07:12people who are sick.
07:16According to the World Health Organization, as of May 5th, there were hundreds of thousands
07:25of cases of acute respiratory illness and diarrhea, including 110,000 children.
07:33And yet despite all of the injuries caused by the bombings, despite all of the sickness
07:40caused by the lack of clean water, there is virtually no health care available to these
07:46people because the health care system in Gaza has been almost totally destroyed.
07:52You know, Mr. President, there are 12 universities in Gaza where kids are able to get an education.
08:04In fact, the people of Gaza and the Palestinian area take education very seriously.
08:12Every single one of these 12 universities has been bombed, as have 56 schools.
08:21Today, 625,000 children in Gaza have no access to education.
08:29I would ask the American people just to think about what is going on psychically, psychologically,
08:37to the children of Gaza.
08:38Imagine being in a place where drones are flying all over the place.
08:42Maybe they are with weapons, maybe not.
08:46Buildings have been destroyed.
08:48Your relatives have been killed.
08:50You don't have any water.
08:51You don't have any food.
08:52You're driven from one place to another.
08:55What kind of permanent damage will occur to virtually every one of these children?
09:03What a horrible experience it is.
09:07And maybe, maybe most importantly, when we think about the wisdom of Mr. Netanyahu being
09:19invited to address both Houses of Congress, an honor to address both Houses of Congress
09:25and the American people, we should remember that his government, according to virtually
09:33every humanitarian organization functioning in Gaza, has blocked, intentionally blocked
09:41humanitarian aid, that is food, water, medical supplies, from reaching the desperate people
09:49of Gaza, which has created, on top of everything else, the conditions for starvation and famine.
10:01And Mr. President, I would tell you, as you probably already know, that blocking humanitarian
10:09aid and creating the conditions for famine is not only an act of extreme cruelty, using
10:19starvation as an act of war, but it is a violation of both American and international law.
10:27It is a war crime.
10:30That is what it is.
10:32Let me say a word about what is going on in Gaza right now in terms of malnutrition.
10:41According to the United Nations, since mid-January, at least 30 children, 30 children have starved
10:47to death.
10:50More than 93,000 children under five have been screened for malnutrition.
10:567,280 were found to have acute malnutrition, including 5,600 with moderate acute malnutrition
11:07and 1,676 with severe acute malnutrition.
11:15But importantly, that is just what we know.
11:19The full reality is likely much, much worse.
11:24But Israel has prevented journalists and the media from getting into the most desperate
11:30areas in Gaza.
11:33You know, Mr. President, we, as we all know, are in campaign season.
11:40And I would say to Speaker Johnson that when you attend your fundraising dinners with your
11:48billionaire friends and you eat your fine steaks and your lobsters and your other wonderful
11:54food, please remember these pictures from Gaza.
12:02This is a photograph of a child in Gaza taken by Getty.
12:18This is a photograph of a child and his or her mother taken by Reuters, and one doubts
12:29very much whether that child is alive today.
12:38This is a photograph taken by Al Jazeera.
12:44And this is another photograph taken by Getty of a child who I can't imagine is alive today.
12:59These children and thousands more are the direct result of Netanyahu's policies, Netanyahu,
13:09the man Speaker Johnson has invited to address Congress.
13:14No, Mr. President, I will not be in attendance for that speech.
13:20I yield the floor.