US Senator Bernie Sanders described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “war criminal” during an interview with MSNBC. He stated that Gaza is experiencing a horrific humanitarian disaster and that he would not attend Netanyahu’s scheduled speech before Congress this week. Senator Sanders criticized the invitation of Netanyahu, whom he called a war criminal, indicating a serious problem for the Biden administration, but noted that Donald Trump’s stance would be even worse.
Sanders highlighted the atrocities of Israel’s current military campaign under Netanyahu’s far-right government and called on Washington to do everything possible to end the war and provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, which he described as experiencing a horrific humanitarian crisis. Most Democratic lawmakers have already expressed their intention to protest Netanyahu’s speech, invited by Congress in May, with about 100 members of the Progressive Congressional Caucus expected to boycott or protest the speech in some form.
Days before, Sanders urged the U.S. administration to stop providing weapons to Israel, citing the Israeli ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, which led to the blockade of main crossings and starvation of the residents. He argued that America could not continue to be complicit in the humanitarian disaster affecting Palestinians in Gaza. In a tweet on the platform X, Sanders said, “The Rafah invasion should mean cutting off all U.S. military aid to Netanyahu’s far-right extremist government.”
