Washington, April 4 (RHC)-- The U.S. Senate has voted down a pair of resolutions introduced by Bernie Sanders to block $8.8 billion in new arms sales to Israel. 

On Thursday, zero Republicans and just 14 Democrats voted alongside Independent Senator Sanders to restrict the sale of massive bombs and other military equipment.  The vote was 83 in favor of continuing weapons sales to Israel to 14 against.  

Bernie Sanders said: “In the last two weeks, they have intensified their assault against the Palestinian people.  According to UNICEF, since Netanyahu broke the ceasefire, more than a thousand people have been killed, including over 300 children, and more than 600 children have been wounded.”

“As bad as the last year and a half has been, at least Israel let some — some, not enough, but some aid through.  But what is happening right now is unthinkable,” Sanders said. “Today, it is 31 days and counting with absolutely no humanitarian aid getting into Gaza.  Nothing.  No food, no water, no medicine, no fuel, for over a month.  That is a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions, the Foreign Assistance Act, and basic human decency.  It is a war crime. You don’t starve children.”

“All of this is unconscionable. We are talking about a mass atrocity.  And what makes it even worse … is that we, as Americans, are deeply complicit in all that is happening in Gaza,” he said, adding that all of the weapons the resolutions would block “have been linked to illegal airstrikes, including on designated humanitarian sites, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties.”

[ SOURCE: DEMOCRACY NOW ]