Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib introduced a resolution in the U.S. Congress recognizing Israel’s brutal attack on Gaza as genocide.
The proposal, announced Friday, has little chance of passing in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, but it highlights growing criticism of Israel in American politics.
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If passed, the resolution would formally recognize that “Israel has committed the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip” and call for an end to the transfer of weapons suspected of being used in the atrocities to the United States, an ally.
The bill also supports “taking action, including expediting investigations and internal procedures and imposing targeted lawful sanctions with respect to the State of Israel.”
The resolution is co-sponsored by 20 other Democratic lawmakers, including some prominent members.
The bill is backed by leading progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, potential presidential candidate Ro Khanna, and Gen Z congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who is seen as a rising star in the party.
The resolution comes as a 10-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) granting Israel $3.8 billion a year in U.S. military aid is set to expire next year, and is likely to reignite the debate over aid as Israeli authorities seek new aid.
Over the past two years, the U.S. government has provided additional aid to Israel to finance the Gaza war, totaling more than $21 billion.
Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, including at least 20,000 children, and reduced much of the territory to rubble.
During the war, Israel blocked aid to Gaza, causing deadly famine in the enclave.
Israel continues to restrict food and fuel entry into Gaza after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect last month. The Israeli military has also been carrying out airstrikes and shootings in the Gaza Strip on a daily basis, in violation of the armistice agreement.
Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, said genocide continues in Gaza.
“Israeli forces have not stopped killing Palestinians since the so-called ‘ceasefire’ was announced,” the congressman said in a statement Friday.
“Impunity only enables further atrocities. As our government continues to hand out blank checks for war crimes and ethnic cleansing, the smiles of Palestinian children are erased by bombs and bullets marked ‘Made in the USA.'”
UN investigators and major rights groups, including Amnesty International and Israel’s B’Tselem, concluded that the Israeli attack amounted to genocide.
The United Nations Convention defines genocide as “an act committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.”
Acts of genocide include killing or injuring members of a targeted group, preventing births, or imposing living conditions “calculated to bring about” the physical destruction of the group.
Tlaib’s resolution cites public statements by Israeli political and military officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, calling for mass violence and collective punishment against Palestinians.
“This place will be fallow. They won’t be able to live here,” Col. Eres Eshel said in November 2023.
Despite a growing consensus among rights experts that the war in Gaza is a genocide, only a minority of members of Congress have adopted that label when describing Israeli attacks.
In addition to the 21 House Democrats who support the resolution, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders also condemn Israel’s genocide.
Experts say the statement is important because the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide calls for a global responsibility to stop atrocities and hold perpetrators accountable.
More than 100 rights groups support Tlaib’s proposal to Congress.
“This resolution is an important step toward recognizing Israel’s actions against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip for what they are: genocide,” Elizabeth Rugebi, Middle East advocacy director at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.
“The United States has ratified the Genocide Convention, which imposes obligations on States to prevent and punish crimes. Amnesty International calls on all members of Congress to urgently support this resolution and ensure that the United States initiates the necessary actions to stop and punish Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
