The United States Senate on Tuesday blocked an effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders that would have forced the State Department to review whether Israel is using U.S. military aid to violate human rights in Gaza.
A group of 11 senators, including Sen. Peter Welch, supported Sanders' resolution, which was rejected 72 to 11.
Sanders spoke on the Senate floor before the vote, flanked by large photographs showing crowds of Palestinian children.
"Whether we like it or not, the United States is complicit in the nightmare that millions of Palestinians are now experiencing," Sanders said.
In the months since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which they killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostage, according to Israeli authorities, Israeli forces have killed more than 24,000 Palestinians,according to Gaza's health ministry.
Over 60,000 Palestinians have also been injured in what Sanders called the most intensive bombing campaign of the 21st century.
Vermonters protest at local weapons manufacturer
About 50 protesters gathered in Vergennes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to block parking lot entrances at Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of RTX (formerly known as Raytheon Technologies), an aerospace and defense corporation that – among other things – manufactures weapons.
Protesters demanded that the U.S. government call for a permanent cease-fire, end military contracts with RTX, and stop arming the Israeli military.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags and carried banners with messages like “stop arming genocide,” while organizers used megaphones to invoke the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The protest was timed to coincide with the afternoon shift change, preventing employees from entering the Vergennes facility.
RTX did not respond to Vermont Public’s request for comment.
Ben & Jerry's board calls for a ceasefire
Meanwhile, Ben and Jerry’s independent board has called for a permanent cease-fire in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Anuradha Mittal, the company’s board chair, told the Financial Times: “Peace is a core value of Ben and Jerry’s... From Iraq to Ukraine [the company] has consistently stood up for these principles. Today is no different as we call for peace and a permanent and immediate ceasefire.”
Ben & Jerry’s announced in 2021 that it would end its sales of ice cream in occupied Palestinian territories because it was “inconsistent with [their] values.” In an op-ed for the New York Times, the Ben & Jerry’s founders said while they remained supporters of the state of Israel, they opposed its policy “which perpetuates an illegal occupation that is a barrier to peace and violates the basic human rights of the Palestinian people who live under the occupation.”
Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, sold the ice cream business in Israel and the West Bank to a local licensee in 2022, according to reporting from the New York Times. Ben & Jerry’s board sued and eventually settled the dispute with Unilever at the end of 2022, the Guardian reported.
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