Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont and ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, during a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.Israel has gone well past self-defence and is now conducting a genocide in the Gaza Strip, Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont) said on Wednesday in a lengthy statement laying out his agreement with a United Nations panel that found the situation met the legal definition of genocide.
Sanders is the first senator to apply the term to Israel, which has been waging war in the tiny strip of land with the aid of US taxpayer dollars for nearly two years. A few other elected Democrats, such as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat, New York) and Ilhan Omar (Democrat, Minnesota), have been using the word for months.
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (Democrat, Massachusetts) said last month that there was “genocide and destruction” unfolding in Gaza, but later backpedaled.
Sanders cited a number of devastating statistics: Over 65,000 people have been killed, with more bodies still lying under rubble. Of those deaths, Eighty-three percent of those deaths were civilians. Hundreds were aid workers and journalists. Seventy percent of all structures have been destroyed. Ninety percent of water and sanitation facilities have been made inoperable.
“The intent is clear,” Sanders wrote. “The conclusion is inescapable: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.”
He continued: “I recognise that many people may disagree with this conclusion. The truth is, whether you call it genocide or ethnic cleansing or mass atrocities or war crimes, the path forward is clear. We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people.”
Sanders pointed to an effort he led to force a vote in the Senate that would block the sale of weapons to Israel, which failed.
The Trump administration has been steadfast in its commitment to Israel, even as support what support existed around the world for its brutal war has faded.
Sanders began his statement by affirming that Israel had the right to defend itself after a mob of extremist fighters burst across the border and killed some 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023.
“But, over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas. Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people,” he wrote in a post on his Senate website simply titled, “It Is Genocide.”
Palestinians flee with their belongings loaded on vehicles and carts as others walk along Rashid Street towards the south of Gaza, following intensified Israeli airstrikes and evacuation orders in the northern areas of the enclave in Gaza City, Gaza on Sept. 17, 2025.He went on to argue that the issue “goes beyond Israel and Palestine.”
“Around the world, democracy is on the defensive. Hatred, racism and divisiveness are on the rise. The challenge we now face is to prevent the world from descending into barbarism, where horrific crimes against humanity can take place with impunity,” he wrote.
Palestinians flee from northern Gaza to the south via Rashid Street, carrying with them the belongings loaded on vehicles and carts they can take due to the intense attacks by Israeli army on areas in the northern Gaza Strip and mandatory evacuation warnings, in Gaza City, Gaza on Sept. 17, 2025.“We must say now and forever that, while wars may happen, there are certain basic standards that must be upheld. The starvation of children cannot be tolerated. The flattening of cities must not become the norm. Collective punishment is beyond the pale.”
Sanders even evoked the Holocaust, “one of the darkest chapters in human history,” to say that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be held accountable for war crimes.
In recent days, Israel has expanded its ground offensive in Gaza City, threatening to demolish what remains of infrastructure there. President Donald Trump has publicly mused more than once about the idea of turning the strip, which is home to 2 million Palestinians, into a beachy resort.
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