'The USA Shares Responsibility For This Catastrphe': Welch Blames US, Israel For Starvation In Gaza

Forbes Breaking News

On the Senate floor, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) demanded food aid for Gaza.

Transcript

00:00President. Senator from Vermont. Mr. President, the Israeli-inflicted starvation of Palestinians

00:09in Gaza must end. It must end. I have come to the floor time and again to urge the Senate to

00:19take action, to demand a ceasefire, to stop the bombing, to demand a surge of humanitarian aid

00:27in Gaza and to bring home the hostages. And two months ago, I spoke about a young girl

00:36who starved to death in Gaza, Janine Ishkafi, seen here, who died in the arms of her father.

00:46All those speeches have been to no avail. Tragically, Janine, and by the way, that name

00:55means paradise. The hope of that family for what they hoped would be a future for this

01:04beautiful young girl died of starvation. Government inflicted starvation in Gaza. And tragically,

01:16many more young children have followed. Janine's death and the deaths of so many tens of thousands

01:27of innocent people in Gaza will become part of our history because the USA shares responsibility

01:35for this catastrophe. And we and future generations of Americans will have to live with that forever.

01:43However, the children who survived this war will be remembered as victims of a unique class of

01:51warfare. This is a man-made famine caused by weapons provided by the United States and paid for,

02:00by the way, by U.S. taxpayers. Mr. President, the starvation we're seeing today is not the unforeseen

02:09or unintended consequence of war. Let me be direct. The starvation we are witnessing today is the result

02:20of a military policy to concentrate the Palestinian population into an ever smaller slice of land.

02:29The starvation we are witnessing today is an advanced and accelerating stage of the Netanyahu government's

02:41military strategy devised and executed immediately following the terrible attacks by Hamas on October 7th.

02:50And that was to force the Palestinians out of northern Gaza and to induce them to leave the territory forever.

03:01And compelled by hunger and thirst, the people, the Palestinians in Gaza, are being forced to make their way to a handful of sites

03:11what our closest allies uniformly condemned as the drip feeding of aid in this so-called humanitarian

03:20pause is a mirage. It's false. It's a trickle of aid to the mere 12 percent of Gaza that is not a military zone

03:33that is being raised and flattened as we speak. Raised and flattened as we speak. Raised to ensure that it cannot be returned to.

03:45From the earliest days after October 7th, we witnessed this plan that can only be seen for what it is,

03:56a systematic and wanton destruction of homes, of mosques, of hospitals, and of schools. That is what is happening.

04:07With bombs provided by American taxpayers, the Netanyahu government has unleashed the most deadly and destructive

04:15aerial bombardment campaign since Vietnam. More than 200,000 buildings were destroyed.

04:23Thousands of children were killed and injured. Thousands of amputees. And it goes on and on.

04:33In the last three months, that campaign has continued. Thousands more homes have been flattened by controlled

04:41demolitions, self-conscious application of military explosives to destroy a home.

04:52Or a school. Thousands more have been demolished by bulldozers. Before the very eyes of people whose homes they are seeing

05:04totally flattened. It's too late for the 60,000 people that have been killed in Gaza.

05:11But, Mr. President, it is not too late for the Senate to act. We are at an absolutely catastrophic inflection point.

05:23And I believe that the United States Senate has an obligation, as our country does, under international humanitarian law to act.

05:33And we can act and help to save thousands of Palestinians who, as I speak, are starving to death.

05:41As I speak, are starving to death.

05:44Two months ago, I led a resolution. It was sponsored by 46 Democrats. It had a simple demand.

05:51Our country must work to end the siege on food aid. It was blocked.

06:00You know, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I'm sure every bit as much as me,

06:07are horrified at the suffering in Gaza. But it's not enough for us to be horrified.

06:13We have to act. We all condemn Hamas. We all want the release of the remaining hostages.

06:23But we have to ask ourselves the question, is it at all justifiable that there is a policy

06:31that has to be recognized that starvation is being used as a tool of warfare?

06:38I reject the legitimacy of that act.

06:47It's a war crime, Mr. President. It's a war crime to starve a population to get what you want from your enemy.

06:58As righteous as your defense against an enemy may be.

07:02It's illegal to starve children to obtain a battlefield advantage.

07:13Yet the Netanyahu government has actually said it's doing that.

07:21My view, Mr. President, it's long, long past the time to say enough.

07:27Enough. Enough. No. The United States will not stand by while hunger is used as a weapon.

07:34We don't do that.

07:38And we cannot separate the current starvation in Gaza

07:44from the Netanyahu government's strategy of forcibly displacing Palestinians from their land.

07:51A short-term surge of aid to keep Palestinians alive is not what we need.

07:57We need full, uninhibited, generous, accessible aid, medical, and food.

08:10But that's not the Netanyahu government policy.

08:12And we can sometimes act as though we're not an agent here, or we don't quite see,

08:19or we want to give them the benefit of the doubt because Israel has been our ally.

08:23But take the words. Can we be numb to the words of the Netanyahu government officials?

08:31The Prime Minister himself said, I don't care about the targets.

08:35Finance in order military officials to, quote, destroy the homes, bomb everything in Gaza.

08:43He said that. Finance Minister Smotrich said, Gaza will be totally destroyed.

08:52Civilians will be sent to the south, to a so-called humanitarian zone,

08:56and from there they will start to leave in great numbers to third countries.

09:00He said that. High official in the Israeli government.

09:06Heritage Minister Eliyahu last week, last week, said that Israeli government was rushing toward Gaza being wiped out.

09:18There's no mystery here.

09:22These are the statements of high government officials.

09:26Defense Minister Katz said that, Gaza residents, this is the final warning.

09:36You will pay the full price.

09:39Return the hostages and remove Hamas and other options will be open to you,

09:43including leaving for other places in the world for those who want to.

09:49The Palestinians who live in Gaza, hard as it may be for us to appreciate.

09:57That's what they call home, and they want to stay there.

10:03Mr. President, the tragedy and suffering in Gaza today demands our full attention and our full engagement,

10:14commitment, because this is a war that we're contributing to sustaining.

10:22And I am here today to debate Gaza's famine conditions,

10:26because the United States has been paying for weapons that Israel is using to flatten Gaza,

10:32but not to feed Palestinians in Gaza.

10:35It was American taxpayers that paid for the bombs and bulldozers that are continuing to flatten homes

10:43to ensure they are never returned to, and that are creating the misery that all of us are shocked to see today.

10:53And it is America, first under President Biden and now under President Trump,

10:59that provides cover for extremists in the Netanyahu government to continue these actions.

11:06Mr. President, America's closest allies, they have called for an end to the war and cut off the

11:12shipment of weapons that send a green light to the extremist government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

11:20And yet, just two weeks ago, President Trump notified the Senate that he intends to ship another

11:26half billion dollars worth of 2,000-pound bombs and 1,000-pound bombs to Israel.

11:35While President Trump speaks of trimming budgets and spending more money here at home,

11:42he's shipping billions of dollars of bombs and shells and bullets that are being

11:47used not just to starve the Palestinian people, but to flatten their homes and drive them off of their land.

11:54Mr. President, I oppose this.

12:00I believe the American people have had enough.

12:03The American people are demanding leadership and clarity from us, from the White House,

12:08that can put an end to this terrible bloodshed, and put an end to the misery of generations of

12:15Palestinians in Gaza.

12:17And the American people are demanding leadership from us today to help secure a real justice and

12:26peace for the people of the Middle East.

12:30Mr. President,

12:33whatever differences we may have,

12:34none of us can, none of us should, none of us can condone the excruciating starvation and misery

12:50that can be abated immediately with the full access to the food and medicine that the people of Gaza need.

13:02we can proceed.

13:10Mr. President, I yield back.

13:14move on

13:27melody

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