[AntiWar.com reports Monday: “UN Agencies Condemn U.S.-Israeli Plan To Use Aid as ‘Bait’ To Force Palestinians in Gaza To Head South.” The outlet also reports: “Hamas said on Sunday that it would release Edan Alexander, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and IDF soldier who was captured during the October 7 attack, and confirmed that it had been in direct talks with the U.S. on a potential Gaza ceasefire deal and the entry of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.” This comes just ahead of Trump’s visit to the region; see analysis from Mouin Rabbani, who highlights some seemingly positive developments, but also notes: “The problem is that this could all prove a repeat of what we experienced in January-February of this year” when Trump backed a ceasefire, but “Once the inauguration was over, the new administration quickly lost interest.”]
Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG) and the National Lawyers Guild International Committee will hold a news conference on Wednesday to announce the “filing of their historic legal complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rigths (IACHR) against the U.S. government for complicity in genocide in Gaza. The lawsuit will include notarized affidavits by Palestinian-American plaintiffs who have lost loved ones to the U.S.-funded genocide. … The complaint will document and provide overwhelming evidence of complicity by the U.S. government, including both the Biden and Trump Administrations, as well as Congress.”
One plaintiff, Monadel Herzallah, has lost 43 family members. He states: “We as Palestinians in the U.S. have sought accountability in federal court but we also made a pledge to seek justice in any other possible venue available.” In the words of Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian human rights activist, best selling author, and a petitioner in this complaint: “I want to do everything in my power to put a stop to the unfathomable horrors that I witnessed in Gaza.”
Huwaida Arraf, the lead attorney drafting the lawsuit and also one of the organizers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, will participate in the press conference, along with Palestinian American plaintiffs and TAG organizers. She said: “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.”
The news conference will be on Wednesday, May 14, at 2 p.m. ET at the National Press Club in the Zenger Room.
Tariq Ra’ouf, human rights activist and son of a major plaintiff: “I did not consent to my tax dollars being used to commit violence against my own family. … 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.”
TAG is a growing grassroots movement, representing more than 3,000 taxpayers across the U.S. backing this complaint.
Contact: Seth Donnelly, Taxpayers Against Genocide, [email protected]