All three members of Vermont's congressional delegation say that Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Their statements, all issued Wednesday, came one day after a United Nations commission came to the same conclusion.
In a statement titled “It is Genocide” posted on his website, Sen. Bernie Sanders said, “We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people."
“Having named it a genocide, we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own,” he continued.
The Vermont independent has repeatedly attempted, through multiple Senate resolutions, to ban the sale of U.S. arms to Israel.
In a floor speech Wednesday, Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat, called on Israel to stop its expanded military campaign in Gaza, also using the term genocide for the first time.
"What you're seeing is the wholesale displacement of people — you're seeing the bombing of buildings to destroy buildings — hospitals and schools have been destroyed — it's got to stop,” he told Vermont Public in an interview Thursday.
And in a Wednesday op-ed, Rep. Becca Balint said the actions of the Israeli government "appear to be a systematic, intentional destruction of the Palestinian people."
Balint, who said she’s the first Jewish member of the U.S. House to call it a genocide, wrote in the op-ed that, “As the granddaughter of a man murdered in the Holocaust, it is not easy for me to say that.”
The delegation is calling for an immediate ceasefire in the nearly two-year-old war.
Since it began striking Gaza in response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, Israel has killed at least 65,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The vast majority have been civilians, according to leaked documents from the Israeli military. More than half a million people in Gaza were suffering from famine as of late August, according to UN-backed experts.
The U.N. commission, in its report on genocide, wrote, “Israel has weaponized the withholding of life-sustaining necessities, specifically by cutting off supplies of water, food, electricity, fuel and other essential supplies, including humanitarian assistance.”
Israel, which continues to claim it is abiding by international law, launched a ground invasion of Gaza City earlier this week, a move U.N. officials say will further imperil Palestinians.
