Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) praised President Biden’s memorandum requiring countries that receive U.S. military aid to prove they are abiding by international human rights law.
“U.S. military aid cannot be a blank check for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his right-wing government,” Warren said at Senate Democrats’ press conference on Friday. “It cannot be a blank check to kill tens of thousands of Palestinians. It cannot be a blank check to deny access to humanitarian aid.”
On Thursday, Biden released a new memorandum requiring countries that receive military support from the U.S. to provide Congress and the State Department with verification that they are abiding by international human rights law.
“President Biden's action is a powerfully important step that conditions U.S. military aid to all countries, including Israel,” Warren said. “It is about basic transparency, accountability, and our values.
“The United States has always put conditions on military assistance, and we cannot make an exception for anyone, including our allies, when it comes to our duty to improve protections for civilians in war zones.”
The senator went on to accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his “right-wing war cabinet” of creating a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, as more than 27,000 Palestinians have killed in the war, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, and more than a quarter of the population is on the brink of starvation.
“This extreme level of civilian harm in Gaza is a moral failure, and now it is fueling an even wider conflict in the region,” Warren said.
Warren says she supports the U.S. facilitating a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, and said Biden's memorandum “is a critical move in that direction,” but she warned that Congress must “continue to exercise oversight to make sure that this policy is enforced.”
