By Esra Tekin
ISTANBUL (AA) – US Senator Bernie Sanders said Sunday that aid to Israel should be contingent on changes in the country's "political and military positions.”
“The Netanyahu government, or hopefully a new Israeli government, must understand that not one penny will be coming to Israel from the US unless there is a fundamental change in their military and political positions,” Sanders said in a statement.
He noted that the US provides $3.8 billion a year in aid to Israel and President Joe Biden’s administration had requested at least $14.3 billion in additional assistance.
“While Israel has the right to go after Hamas, (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government does not have the right to wage almost total warfare against the Palestinian people,” Sanders said.
Sanders also highlighted that the displacement of 1.6 million people in Gaza and depriving them of food, water, medicine and fuel as well as the killing of some 12,000 Palestinians constitutes both a violation of international law and a "violation of every code of human decency,” stressing the need for it to stop.
He listed the conditions that need to be imposed for aid to Israel.
“An end to the indiscriminate bombing which has taken thousands of civilian lives and a significant pause in military operations so that massive humanitarian assistance can come into the region.
“The right of displaced Gazans to return to their homes. No long-term Israeli re-occupation or blockade of Gaza, an end to settler violence in the West Bank and a freeze on settlement expansion, (and) a commitment to broad peace talks for a two-state solution in the wake of the war.”