After nearly a year of extensively calling, emailing, and attempting to meet with their Congresspersons

in order to persuade them to stop funding the genocide in Gaza, but to no avail, human rights activists

throughout ten counties in Northern California united to form TAG in the fall of 2024. The goal was to

hold their Northern CA Representatives in the House, Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson, accountable

for complicity in the genocide in Gaza.

On April 20th, 2024, Reps Thompson and Huffman voted, along with 364 other Representatives, on April

20th, 2024 to send $26.38 billion of US tax dollars as military aid to Israel. On April 23, 2024, 79

Senators voted to approve of this $26.38 billion in military aid as part of a larger package. By doing so,

these Congresspersons violated the US Constitution, existing US federal laws, and the United Nations

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

This illegal allocation of US tax dollars was done in the face of overwhelming evidence documenting that

the Israeli military was carrying out genocide in Gaza with US-provided weapons and munitions. On

January 26th, 2024, over three months before the aforementioned votes, the International Court of

Justice (ICJ ) had already ruled that the charge of genocide against the Israeli government was plausible

and that the case should proceed for ongoing litigation. On February 26th, 2024, almost two months

before their votes, Amnesty International, the largest human rights organization in the world, issued a

report finding that the Israeli government was committing genocide in Gaza. Human Rights Watch, the

second largest human rights organization, made the same finding on the same day. Both organizations

found that the Israeli government was systematically starving the people of Gaza through cutting off aid,

water, and electricity, by bombing and military occupation, underwritten by the provision of US military

aid and weapons. On March 24th, 2024, almost one month before the votes in the US Congress,

Francesca Albanese– the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian

Territories– issued a comprehensive report that found the Israeli government had unequivocally crossed

the “threshold” and was actively committing genocide in Gaza. This is but a small sample of the reports

and testimonies made by UN bodies, human rights officials, aid workers, genocide experts, and journalists

on the ground in Gaza that documented and demonstrated genocide was occurring and intensifying in

Gaza before Congress authorized $26.38 billion more in military aid and weapons sales.

On December 19th, 2024, TAG filed a class action in the US District Court for the Northern District of

California against Representatives Huffman and Thompson for illegally using their tax dollars to fund the

genocide in Gaza. The lawsuit was amended on January 17th to include all the counties within the court’s

jurisdiction and nearly 2000 class members, as well as to name Rep. Nancy Pelosi, both CA Senators at

the time of the vote, and more defendants for being complicit in genocide.

Media attention of the TAG lawsuit garnered national interest and TAG soon spread. TAG convened a

national webinar for activists interested in filing similar class action lawsuits in their districts; more than

1100 people from 40 different states registered. People of conscience across the US, representing the vast

majority of federal income tax-paying constituents, all shared the same experiences of attempting to

respectfully persuade their Congresspersons to stop funding the genocide, only to be rebuked.

On February 10th, 2025, Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed the TAG lawsuit on the grounds that the case

presented a“non-justiciable political question” to the court. Judge Chhabria’s dismissal echoed the ruling

in a previous class action that aimed to stop US complicity in the genocide in Gaza. On November 13,

2023, Palestinian human rights organizations together with Palestinians in Gaza and the US filed a class

action lawsuit in the same federal court against the Biden Administration for failure to prevent and

complicity in genocide. While Judge Jeffrey S. White acknowledged that the evidence provided to the

court may “plausibly constitute a genocide”, he dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that the case

presented “non-justiciable political questions”.

Both judges are legally and morally wrong. It is most certainly within the “jurisdiction” of the federal

court system to intervene and halt the other two branches from participating in and illegally funding

genocide with our tax dollars in violation of both the US Constitution and international law.

Alongside of Congress and the federal court system, the Executive Branch has been directly complicit in

genocide. Both President Biden and President Trump, and other Executive Branch officials have

supported this illegal use of our tax dollars. The Biden Administration fast-tracked weapons sales,

authorized billions more in military aid, and consistently used the power of the veto in the UN Security

Council to undermine any real ceasefire resolution that could have been passed early in the conflict to

prevent such widespread death. In its first three weeks, the Trump Administration has rescinded the limit

on shipping 2000-pound bombs and pushed for billions more in weapons sales to the Israeli military,

while openly calling for the US colonization of the Gaza Strip and the forced removal of Palestinians.

What all of this demonstrates is that the US government is incapable of protecting the most basic human

rights and preventing genocide. International struggle and solidarity is required to stop US impunity.

In view of this, TAG held a press conference on February 19th, 2025 and launched a National Declaration

on February 28th, 2025 calling on all US taxpayers to join the movement to hold our government officials

accountable in the UN Human Rights Council and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.