{"id":43891,"date":"2025-09-13T12:52:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=43891"},"modified":"2025-09-13T12:52:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:52:53","slug":"us-senators-praised-for-report-on-us-complicity-in-israels-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/09\/13\/us-senators-praised-for-report-on-us-complicity-in-israels-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"US Senators Praised for Report on US Complicity in Israel\u2019s Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Sens.<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) released and discussed a report about their recent trip to the Middle East on September 11, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: screenshot\/C-SPAN)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAIR urged Congress \u201cto immediately act on their findings by halting all military aid to the Israeli government, enforcing existing US human rights laws, and supporting international accountability efforts.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JESSICA CORBETT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sep 12, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Council on American-Islamic Relations on Friday commended Sens. Jeff Merkley and Chris Van Hollen for a new report<\/a> about their recent trip to the Middle East that calls out US complicity in Israel\u2019s ethnic cleansing campaign in the Gaza<\/a> Strip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merkley (D-Ore.) and Van Hollen (D-Md.) \u201chave demonstrated a rare and commendable commitment to truth and accountability in the face of overwhelming political pressure,\u201d said CAIR Maryland director Zainab Chaudry in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"US<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US Lawmakers Urged to Follow Merkley and Van Hollen\u2019s Lead After Senators Denied Access to Gaza<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Thousands<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Israeli Genocide Intensifies, Majority of Americans Support Palestinian Statehood<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir report confirms what Palestinians and human rights organizations have been documenting for years: that Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza and the West Bank amount to ethnic cleansing at the very least\u2014and that the US bears responsibility for enabling these atrocities through billions in unconditional military aid and uncritical political support,\u201d Chaudry continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe thank the senators for standing on the side of justice,\u201d she added, \u201cand urge Congress to immediately act on their findings by halting all military aid to the Israeli government, enforcing existing US human rights laws, and supporting international accountability efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAIR, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States, previously praised<\/a> the pair last month for their attempt to enter or even fly over Gaza, where Israeli forces continue to slaughter and starve Palestinians. The Gaza Health Ministry said<\/a> Friday that the death toll since October 7, 2023 is at least 64,756, though experts believe the actual figure is far higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u201cis implementing a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians,\u201d declares the cover page of the senators\u2019 21-page report, released Thursday. \u201cAmerica is complicit. The world must stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merkley said in a statement that \u201cour report details what we saw during our recent trip to the region, including the destruction of Rafah that has reduced the city to rubble, and what we heard from experts in the field about how the Netanyahu government is systematically depriving Palestinians of the essentials needed to live\u2014food, shelter, medicine, and water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/players\/kUVRNS1k-xS4RtpB7.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report\u2014which followed videos<\/a> that the senators filmed and shared on social media at various stops\u2014states that \u201cthe findings from our trip lead to the inescapable conclusion that the Netanyahu government\u2019s war in Gaza has gone far beyond the targeting of Hamas to imposing collective punishment on the Palestinians there, with the goal of making life for them unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is why it restricts the delivery of humanitarian assistance and uses food as a weapon of war,\u201d the publication asserts. It also points to the death toll from the Israeli assault and that \u201cat least 1.9 million people, about 90% of the population, across the Gaza Strip have been displaced during the war. Many have been displaced repeatedly, some 10 times or more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 90% of Gaza\u2019s homes \u201chave been destroyed or severely damaged,\u201d school buildings and agricultural lands \u201chave been rendered unusable,\u201d and hospitals \u201chave been damaged or destroyed, forcing many to close or operate under severely compromised conditions,\u201d the document notes. Additionally, \u201cessential water and sanitation infrastructure have also collapsed under relentless bombing, leaving much of Gaza without access to clean water or functioning sewage systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact that both the Netanyahu government and now the Trump administration are framing their plan as a call for the \u2019voluntary<\/a>\u2019 exodus of Palestinians from Gaza is one of the most fraudulent, sinister, and twisted cover stories ever told,\u201d the report adds. \u201cIt is a farce to suggest people who have been subjected to destruction and dehumanization on such a vast scale would be departing Gaza \u2018voluntarily.\u2019 The plan is clearly to pressure Palestinians to leave Gaza by making life for them there virtually impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Hollen said that \u201cwe hope this report will draw greater attention to these facts both here and around the world,\u201d and pledged that \u201cwe will do everything in our power to end America\u2019s ongoing complicity in this humanitarian disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Democratic and Republican administrations, the US has given\u00a0Israel<\/a>\u00a0billions of dollars in annual military aid. Both senators\u00a0have<\/a>\u00a0repeatedly\u00a0voted for<\/a>\u00a0Sen.\u00a0Bernie Sanders<\/a>\u2019 (I-Vt.) resolutions that would prevent the sale of certain offensive American weaponry to Israel, which have increasingly gained Democratic backers but still lack sufficient support to pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JESSICA CORBETT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) released and discussed a report about their recent trip to the Middle East on September 11, 2025. \u00a0(Photo: screenshot\/C-SPAN) CAIR urged Congress \u201cto immediately act on their findings by halting all military aid to the Israeli government, enforcing existing US… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43891"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43892,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43891\/revisions\/43892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}