U.S. Taxpayers File Historic Legal Complaint in DC on May 14

“What is happening in Gaza is a blatant violation of morality, human rights, and ethics. If we allow these horrors to continue without accountability, we will be entering a dangerous time for humanity, where any attack on civilian life can be excused by false and racist claims of terrorism, by any violent oppressor, not just Israel. I did not consent to my tax dollars being used to commit violence against my own family; I did not consent to paying for the bullets and bombs that have killed 43 of my family members. It is a ludicrous and delusional expectation that we, the American taxpayers, will stand idly by while money that should be going to our education, healthcare and veterans is instead going on to fund more war crimes, and more deaths. Justice is inevitable, and we will make sure that the United States government is held accountable for their role in this genocide.”

“We are filing this complaint at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because the U.S. government has effectively shielded itself from accountability for its international crimes under its own legal system, even for crimes against humanity and genocide. While the United States actively enables and materially supports Israel’s atrocities, it has constructed legal shields at home that deny victims even the chance to seek redress. The United States cannot continue to finance, arm, and politically cover for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide abroad while remaining immune from international scrutiny. This petition is a call for accountability where none has yet been possible.” -- Huwaida Arraf, lead attorney and also one of the founders of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition

“Over the course of this genocide, I have witnessed the systematic destruction of my history, heritage and parts of the beautiful culture of which I am a product. I have witnessed the bombing of hospitals and schools, churches, mosques, playgrounds, museums, cultural centers, libraries, and seaside promenades. The intentional destruction of the ancient Al-Omari mosque, the ancient Byzantine Church and the Church of Jabalia, the third oldest in the world, to name a few, inflicts irreversible damage to our traditions and cultural history. I have seen the desecration of burial grounds and have seen the remains of forebears being unearthed, erasing our history on the land so that refugees have nothing to return to. Israel, with the full support and protection of the U.S., has been destroying anything and everything that sustains life or connects us, thePalestinian people, to our homeland and our history.”

“I want to express my deepest thanks and appreciation to Taxpayers Against Genocide and the National Lawyers Guild Internaitonal Committee for their courageous and vital work in this historical complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. CAIR offers our fullest support in their effort and this effort in holding our government accountable for its complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, against their occupation and Apartheid of Palestinians throughout the region including the West Bank.”

 “We are doctors. We swore to protect life– not to fund its destruction. In our name, with our tax dollars, children in Gaza are being starved and bombed while food and medicine sit just five miles away. This isn’t complicated. It is cruelty. One phone call could save thousands. Let the aid in. Let the children eat. Bread, not bombs. Those who commit or enable these crimes must be held accountable.”

 “I’ve dedicated myself to amplifying not only the voices of my Palestinian brethren, but also those of Indigenous and marginalized voices everywhere.  In my dedication for human rights and justice, I am seeking restitution for the complicity of our government officials in misusing my tax dollars to commit genocide and the ethnic cleansing of my homeland and people.”

“The Black Alliance for Peace supports Taxpayers Against Genocide in its demand to end US facilitation of genocide in Gaza with taxpayer resources, which also facilitates the deepening degradation of material conditions of US citizens already struggling under capitalist exploitation….From the opposition to fascism in Spain and the invasion and occupation of Ethiopia by Italy in the 1930s through the 1960s when leading black organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) sparked the anti-Vietnam War movement with their opposition to the war and their expression of solidarity with the Palestinian national struggle, Black anti-war and anti-imperialist positions reflected the Black internationalist stance at the center of the Black radical tradition. We support TAG’s campaign to end the use of US taxpayer dollars to fund genocide in Palestine, Lebanon, and everywhere else Israel is implicated in human rights violations and war crimes, such as in Congo. While US citizens struggle to make ends meet and a capitalist dictatorship that deprives the people of their needs for the profit of a few, the US is once again violating international law and its own Congressional mandates against facilitating genocide with its citizens resources. Resources that are denied use for meeting the needs of the people, but are freely used instead to destroy life, and on an unimaginable scale…BAP joins TAG in once again charging the US with genocide, carrying on the example set by William Patterson and Paul Robeson in the historic We Charge Genocide petition highlighting the deadly brutalization of Black people in this country submitted to the United Nations in 1951.”

“As US taxpayers, our government is making us complicit in the Israeli genocide, recently allocating another $8.8 billion in lethal weapons to Israel, meaning thousands more 2000 pound bombs and thousands more hellfire missiles which are shredding the children of Gaza. The world is being traumatized as the U.S. is supplying weapons for a genocide that we are watching unfold daily. We demand aid be allowed to reach the people who are starving to death. We demand that our Senators and Representatives stop funding this barbaric and illegal massacre. This is the moment to do everything we can and we are answering that challenge.”