‘America Is Complicit’: Two US Democratic Senators Slam Israel’s Gaza ‘Ethnic Cleansing’
Washington (Quds News Network)- Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland published a report Wednesday, labelling Israel’s assault in Gaza as “ethnic cleansing.”
The two also condemned Israel for blocking aid from entering the Strip. The senators, both longtime advocates for Palestinian rights, visited Israel and the West Bank in late August.
“In Gaza, the Netanyahu government is implementing its goal through the near-total destruction of civilian infrastructure and its use of food as a weapon of war,” the report read.
“These policies are part of a calculated effort to drive Palestinians out of Gaza by making it impossible for them to live there.”
The report criticized past statements by Israeli officials about forcibly displacing Palestinians out of Gaza.
“Any talk of ‘voluntary departures’ is a cruel hoax,” the report read. “Departure is not ‘voluntary’ when the conditions needed to support life are extinguished.”
“There is nothing voluntary about wanting to depart when your home is gone, when your agricultural fields are no longer accessible,” Van Hollen said at the press conference.
They also said far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “have pledged to bring down his government,” if the prime minister were to sign an agreement ending the Gaza war.
“Some have tried to dismiss Smotrich and Ben-Gvir as fringe actors and solitary voices,” the senators said in the report. “That was once the case in Israeli politics, but it is certainly not true today. They have become key elements of the Netanyahu coalition, and their views regarding both Gaza and the West Bank have been ascendant in this Israeli government.”
After their August visit, Merkley and Van Hollen criticized Israel’s war in Gaza and policies in the occupied West Bank. Merkley dismissed the presentation they received at Karm Abu Salem Crossing on the Gaza border as “pure propaganda.”
In a post on X, he said they were given “a rosy briefing about aid reaching Gaza,” only to conclude that “the reality is different.”
At the time, Van Hollen said, “The Jordanians said Senator Jeff Merkley and I could join one of those flights to see the devastation, but Israel denied authorization for our scheduled flight.”
The lawmakers also met with former Israeli soldiers who described participating in “systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure”. Their report noted first-hand accounts of “how this was a part of an intentional pattern of using explosives to blow up whole city blocks, houses, schools and other civilian sites”.
Both senators accused the US government of enabling the described ethnic cleansing. “We, the United States, are complicit in all of this,” Van Hollen said. “Because we’re providing taxpayer dollar support to the Netanyahu government to use weapons in Gaza.”
