WASHINGTON, July 22 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today released the following statement ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress this week:

As I stated last month, I will not be attending the address of Benjamin Netanyahu to Congress on Wednesday.

I agree with both the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations independent commission that both Benjamin Netanyahu and Yahya Sinwar are war criminals. Hamas, under Sinwar’s leadership, began this war with a horrific attack against Israel, which killed 1,200 innocent men, women, and children, and took over 240 captives.

In response, Netanyahu and his right-wing, extremist government have waged total war against the Palestinian people, killing at least 39,000 Palestinians and injuring 89,000 – sixty percent of whom are women, children, or elderly people. Further, the Netanyahu war machine has made life unlivable in Gaza, destroying the housing stock, the physical infrastructure, and the health care system. Every university has been bombed, and 88 percent of all school buildings have been damaged. And now, because of the ongoing restrictions on humanitarian aid, some 495,000 people face catastrophic levels of food insecurity – in other words, they are starving.

No. Netanyahu should not be welcomed into the United States Congress. On the contrary, his policies in Gaza and the West Bank and his refusal to support a two-state solution should be roundly condemned. In my view, his right-wing, extremist government should not receive another nickel of U.S. taxpayer support to continue the inhumane destruction of Gaza.