Lawsuit Calls for US Congressmen to End Gaza Genocide

San Francisco (12-19) – Human rights and anti-war activists along with Palestinian supporters attended a “Taxpayers Against Genocide” press conference and rally on December 19 calling for an end to funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It was announced that an unprecedented class action lawsuit was filed this morning at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse against California Congressmen Mike Thompson (D) and Jared Huffman (D) for their continuing support for Israel’s war in Gaza. The 500 plaintiffs in the lawsuit represent ten Northern California counties in the representatives’ districts and persons from all ethnicities, religious backgrounds and walks of life.

Activists and supporters of ending the genocide, being frustrated by the lack of response from either of the representatives, through their constituents’ repeated actions, protests, demonstrations, letter writing and call campaigns along with frequent office visits are now looking to the courts for relief.

The continued support of funding Israel’s war in Gaza by Thompson and Huffman in turn involuntarily makes their constituents complicit in war crimes and genocide by using federal taxpayers’ money. The lawsuit is asking the court for declaratory relief, wherein, according to the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Dean Royer of Szeto & Wong Law, “The court would make a declaration of statement in terms of the rights that have been violated and constitutional violations.”

The lawsuit is also seeking injunctive relief through “a court order to put an end to the allocations of funding for what has resulted in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” And finally, for a judgement of compensation for those constituents who have “suffered harm in various and significant ways” along with emotional damage done by the ongoing genocide through their representative’s support thereby making them complicit. Several of the speakers told of mental health problems, emotional trauma and depression over the senseless killings of so many civilians and children vowing that any monies awarded them would be donated to the rebuilding of Gaza.

Both Thompson and Huffman are accused by activists of “illegally abusing their tax and spend authority” for continuously voting in favor of supplying $26.38 billion to the Israeli government in military aid and weapons enabling and prolonging the ongoing genocide.

Norman Solomon, executive director for the Institute for Public Accuracy and national director of Rootsaction.org, said “Two weeks ago Amnesty International issued a report that Israel is engaged in genocide.” Today “Human Rights Watch issued a report concluding that Israel is engaged in genocide. It is incontrovertible that Israel is engaged in genocide using our tax dollars to do that. There are many, many, many aspects of what is sickening, disgusting and outrageous about defenders of continued military aid to Israel trying to rationalize that aid. This lawsuit filed today is a beginning to challenge support to genocide; it is certainly not the end.”

In answering a question of how long it will be before a decision by the court is forthcoming, plaintiffs’ attorney Royer went on to say that it could be “a long haul” but “we will stay in this as long as it takes.”

Inspiration for the lawsuit announced today was a direct result of another lawsuit filed in United States District Court for The Northern District of California on November 13, 2023, against U.S. government officials, naming President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Lloyd James Austin III, Secretary of Defense, for “their failure to prevent and for complicity in,” Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

That lawsuit ended with the court’s panel finding in July that it had no standing respective to U.S. foreign policy, saying “The district court dismissed the complaint because plaintiffs’ claims raised non-justiciable political questions.” And going further by saying that “Though federal courts decide cases with political overtones, we do not decide political questions.”

As word of today’s lawsuit has become widely known, plaintiffs have heard from activists across the country who are desirous of filing similar actions naming their representatives in holding them accountable to end funding for Israel and for their being made complicit in the genocide. One speaker noted that recent polls show that most Americans no longer support funding for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Just last week a study conducted in June by the Community Training Centre for Crisis Management (CTCCM) with support from the War Child Alliance and the Dutch Relief Alliance announced that in a survey involving 504 families in Gaza they found that “96% of children feel their death is imminent, and nearly half have expressed a desire to die.”

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell on November 14, in addressing the unspeakable dire situation of children in Gaza, called for “…all parties to the conflict, and on those with influence over them, to take decisive action to end the suffering of children, to release all hostages, to ensure children’s rights are upheld, and to adhere to obligations under international humanitarian law.”

The horrific consequences of which have seen the entire population of Gaza reduced daily by bombings, missile attacks and killings by the Israeli military in its quest to ethnically cleanse the entire Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population. The war thus far has had an overwhelming and profound life altering psychological effect on the children who have had to live in a war zone for the past 14 months.

Because of today’s lawsuit filing, activist Leslie Angeline, who was present, announced she has was ending her 31-day Gaza solidarity hunger strike.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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