Follow us on social

Sen. Sanders calls for probe into Israeli human rights violations

Sen. Sanders calls for probe into Israeli human rights violations

Resolution could force State Department to provide report on how US weapons are being used in Gaza

Reporting | QiOSK

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took another step in his effort to place conditions on future aid to Israel on Thursday, by introducing legislation that could force the State Department to release a report detailing potential human rights violations during the ongoing war on Gaza.

The resolution was made pursuant to Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act, meaning that it is privileged and that Sanders can force a vote on it 10 days after it is introduced in committee.

Sanders has been one of the most vocal supporters of conditioning aid to Israel. In November, he wrote in a New York Times op-ed that “[t]he blank check approach must end,” and that the United States “must make clear that while we are friends of Israel, there are conditions to that friendship and that we cannot be complicit in actions that violate international law and our own sense of decency.”

He later voted against President Joe Biden’s $110 billion emergency supplemental because, he said, it included $10.1 billion with “no strings attached” for the Netanyahu government’s “inhumane” war against Gaza. He and a number of Senate Democrats also sent an open letter to Biden last week calling for stronger oversight of the U.S. weapons being sent to Israel.

Sanders’s latest effort, if approved by the Senate, would force the State Department to release a report containing “all available credible information concerning alleged violations of internationally recognized human rights by the Government of Israel” and the steps Washington has taken to “promote respect for and observance of human rights as part of the Government of Israel’s activities.” Sanders is also asking for evidence that no Israeli security forces that have received American assistance are guilty of committing any human rights violations. According to Section 502B, if the State Department does not produce the report within 30 days of passage, the target country does not receive any security assistance.

A report from Amnesty International published earlier this month found that U.S-made munitions were used in two unlawful Israeli strikes in Gaza in October.

“The organization found distinctive fragments of the munition in the rubble of destroyed homes in central Gaza following two strikes that killed a total of 43 civilians – 19 children, 14 women and 10 men,” reads the report. “In both cases, survivors told Amnesty International there had been no warning of an imminent strike.”

This week, the Biden administration did offer some pushback on weapons sales to Israel, when it delayed the 20,000 assault rifles over fears of settler violence in the West Bank. Reports say that the administration is seeking stronger assurances from the Israeli government that the weapons will not be given to settlers.

Section 502B(c) is a rarely used national security tool. It has not been successfully employed to get a report from the State Department since 1976, and it was most recently tried earlier this year when Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced a resolution that would have investigated Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations. The resolution has not yet been brought to a vote, though Murphy and Lee could in theory still force one until the end of this congressional session.

“Senator Sanders’ resolution marks a historic invocation of Section 502B, a potent but underused human rights oversight tool,” John Ramming Chappell, a fellow at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said in a statement. “The resolution provides a pathway to meaningful scrutiny of U.S. security assistance to Israel as U.S. weapons contribute to devastating harm to civilians in Gaza.”

The Biden administration has maintained that it is not tracking Israel’s compliance with the laws of war in real time, but, according to a Politico report on Thursday evening, the U.S. has already begun to collect data and intelligence that could help make these determinations.

“State Department officials are also collecting reports of potential Israeli violations through a system unveiled in August called the Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, or CHIRG, according to Josh Paul, who quit the department over concerns about its approach to the war,” reports Politico. “Paul said some officials within the department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs have asked State’s legal wing to ‘provide information about their potential international law exposure as a result of approving these sales.’”

A senior American official told the Washington Post last week that the U.S. government was unable to make these judgements as events happen because they lacked access to the necessary Israeli intelligence. But Brian Finucane, a former state department lawyer, told Politico that this is not the case. “It's really disingenuous for people in the government to claim that it's too hard or we can't do this in real time,” Finucane, now a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said. “It's simply a choice. They choose not to do this.”

If the Senate were to approve Sanders’ resolution — which seems unlikely given the widespread support for Israel in Congress — and the State Department were to produce a report, Congress would then have the opportunity to adopt a resolution that would restrict or end security assistance to Israel. Such legislation would have to go through both chambers of Congress and be signed by the president.


Bernie Sanders speaks at 20/20's Criminal Justice Forum which was held at Allen University (Photo: Crush Rush via shutterstock)

Reporting | QiOSK
Abrams M1A2 Main Battle Tank
Top photo credit: An Abrams M1A2 Main Battle Tank is loaded onto a trailer headed to Vaziani TrainingArea May 5, 2016, in preparation for Noble Partner 16. (Photo by Spc. Ryan Tatum, 1st Armor Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division)

Gutting military testing office may be the deadliest move yet

Military Industrial Complex

With the stroke of a pen, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has gutted the Pentagon’s weapon testing office.

His order is intended to “eliminate any non-statutory or redundant functions” by reducing the office to 30 civilian employees and 15 assigned military personnel. The order also terminates contractor support for the testing office.

keep readingShow less
President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Top image credit: President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi attends the 34th Arab League summit, in Baghdad, Iraq, May 17, 2025. Hadi Mizban/Pool via REUTERS

Egypt's energy gamble has left it beholden to Israel

Middle East

As the scorching summer season approaches, Egypt finds itself once again in the throes of an uncomfortable ritual: the annual scramble for natural gas.

Recent reports paint a concerning picture of what's to come, industrial gas supplies to vital sectors like petrochemicals and fertilizers have been drastically cut, some by as much as 50 percent. The proximate cause? Routine maintenance at Israel’s Leviathan mega-field, leading to a significant drop in imports.

But this is merely the latest symptom of a deeper, more chronic ailment. Egypt, once lauded as a rising energy hub, has fallen into a perilous trap of dependence, its national security and foreign policy options increasingly constrained by an awkward reliance on Israeli gas.

For years, the Egyptian government assured its populace and the world of an impending energy bonanza. The discovery of the gargantuan Zohr gas field in 2015, hailed as the largest in the Mediterranean, was presented as the dawn of a new era. By 2018, when Zohr began production, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi declared that Egypt had "scored a goal," promising self-sufficiency and even the transformation into a regional gas exporter. The vision was that Egypt, once an importer, would leverage its strategic location and liquefaction plants to become a vital conduit for Eastern Mediterranean gas flowing to Europe.

Billions were poured into new power stations, further solidifying the nation's reliance on gas for electricity generation, which today accounts for a staggering 60 percent of its total consumption.

keep readingShow less
Karol Nawrocki
Top image credit: Karol Nawrocki holds a rally March 2025. KSikorski / Shutterstock.com

Trumpism finds a home in Poland

Europe

In a nail-biter finish to a bitter campaign, a polarized Polish electorate over the weekend chose the Euro-skeptic, populist right candidate, Karol Nawrocki over Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw.

This contest, with close parallels to the recent one in Romania, produced an unanticipated triumph for Nawrocki, who, like George Simian, his Romanian counterpart, aligned himself with the MAGA agenda of President Trump. At a CPAC meetingheld in Poland in the lead-up to Poland’s runoff, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s endorsement of Nawrocki was applauded by populist nationalist leaders from across Europe.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.