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As Israel Keeps Killing Palestinians, Tlaib Leads Bill Recognizing War on Gaza as Genocide
"After over two years of slaughter, forced starvation, and mass atrocities in Gaza, the global consensus is clear: The Israeli government has committed genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza."
Nov 14, 2025
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and 20 Democratic colleagues on Friday introduced legislation that would officially recognize Israel's 25-month war on Gaza as a genocide, a move that came as Israeli forces continued killing Palestinians in the coastal strip and violating a tenuous ceasefire with Hamas.
Tlaib (D-Mich.)—the only Palestinian American in Congress—introduced H.Res. 876, which, if passed, would "officially recognize that the state of Israel has committed the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza" and affirm that it is official US policy to "prevent and punish the crime of genocide, wherever it occurs."
“The Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza has not ended, and it will not end until we act," Tlaib said in a statement Friday. "Since the so-called ‘ceasefire’ was announced, Israeli forces haven’t stopped killing Palestinians."
According to Gaza's Government Media Office (GMO), Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement 282 times as of November 10, 2025—exactly one month after the US-brokered truce took effect. Alleged violations include airstrikes resulting in massacres, shootings of civilians, property demolitions, and raids beyond the ceasefire's "yellow line" buffer zones.
GMO says Israeli forces have killed least 242 Palestinians and injured more than 620 others during the truce.
This, in addition to the at least 249,000 Palestinians who have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since October 2023, including upward of 10,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the ruins of Gaza, which could take decades to clear. Around 2 million Palestinians have been starved, sickened, and forcibly displaced. Many others have been arbitrarily imprisoned, tortured, and allegedly subjected to rape and other sexual abuse.
"After over two years of slaughter, forced starvation, and mass atrocities in Gaza, the global consensus is clear: The Israeli government has committed genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza," Tlaib noted.
She continued:
Palestinians in Gaza have attested to this genocide for over two years and it has been concluded by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and highly respected international, Palestinian, and Israeli human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, Al-Haq, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Forensic Architecture, and the University Network for Human Rights.
The resolution calls for the United States to "respect its obligations under the Genocide Convention by employing all means reasonably available to it to prevent and punish the crime of genocide."
These include:
- cessation of relevant arms and equipment transfers;
- investigation and prosecution of individuals and corporations in the United States implicated in the crime of genocide;
- compliance with the orders of the International Court of Justice and the investigations of the International Criminal Court (ICC); and
- targeted, lawful sanctions with respect to the state of Israel and individuals or corporations involved in or facilitating the commission of genocide.
“Impunity only enables more atrocity," Tlaib warned. "As our government continues to send a blank check for war crimes and ethnic cleansing, Palestinian children’s smiles are extinguished by bombs and bullets that say made in the USA."
"To end this horror, we must reject genocide denial and follow our binding legal obligations under the Genocide Convention to take immediate action to pursue justice and accountability to prevent and punish the crime of genocide," she added. "We must hold individual perpetrators and complicit corporations to account. We must stop sending weapons to a genocidal military. We must follow international law and use all means available to us, including sanctions, to bring this genocide to an end.”
Despite existing laws prohibiting US assistance to foreign security forces that commit gross human rights violations, the United States—which grew into a world power in part via genocide of Indigenous Americans—has provided arms and diplomatic cover to the perpetrators of genocides in Paraguay, Guatemala, Bangladesh, East Timor, Kurdistan, and Gaza over the past half-century, while turning a blind eye to other genocides.
Under the Biden and Trump administrations, the US has provided Israel with more than $20 billion in armed aid while thwarting efforts to end the genocide by vetoing numerous United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolutions.
The Trump administration has also slapped sanctions on ICC judges after the tribunal issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation.
Trump has also targeted individuals and nations who seek justice for Palestinians, acknowledge the Gaza genocide, or recognize Palestinian statehood.
Tlaib's resolution is co-sponsored by Democratic Reps. Becca Balint (Vt.), André Carson (Ind.), Greg Casar (Texas), Maxine Dexter (Ore.), Maxwell Alejandro Frost (Fla.), Jesús "Chuy" García (Ill.), Al Green (Texas), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), “Hank” Johnson Jr. (Ga.), Ro Khanna (Calif.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Jim McGovern (Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Mark Pocan (Wis.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Lateefah Simon (Calif.), Nydia Velázquez (NY), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ).
The resolution—which is unlikely to get through the Republican-controlled Congress—is also endorsed by more than 100 organizations.
“This resolution is an important step towards recognizing Israel’s actions against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip for what they are—genocide," Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa advocacy director Elizabeth Rghebi said in support of the measure.
"The US ratified the Genocide Convention which imposes a duty on states to prevent and punish the crime," Rghebi added. "Amnesty International calls on all members of Congress to urgently support this resolution and ensure the US begins taking the actions necessary to prevent and punish Israel’s genocide in Gaza."
Beth Miller, political director at Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said that “for over two years, the US has been a full partner in the Israeli government’s genocide against Palestinians. Presidents and members of Congress have denied and erased Israel’s ongoing atrocities in Gaza, shielded Israel from accountability in the international arena, and attempted to dehumanize Palestinians."
"Congresswoman Tlaib and the original co-sponsors joining her on this historic resolution are making clear that this complicity must come to an end," Miller added. "These representatives are heeding the call of the overwhelming majority of Americans who want to see an end to his genocide and a halt to US support for war crimes."
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Case of Sami Hamdi Shows Why 'Israel First' Is a Threat to American Democracy
Sami’s detention should concern every American, regardless of political or religious affiliation.
Nov 14, 2025
As you read this, British Muslim journalist Sami Hamdi is finally being reunited with his wife and three children, including their 10-month-old baby, in their home in London.
Known for his unapologetic analysis of global politics and biting criticism of human rights violations, Sami was unjustly detained by U.S. immigration officials at San Francisco International Airport while traveling from a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) event in Sacramento, where I had last spoken with him, to another CAIR event in Florida.
His “crime?” Daring to speak publicly about the suffering of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government and calling on the U.S. government to “put America First, not the Israeli government first.”
Nelson Mandela once said, “A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy.” The U.S. government’s blatant attempt to silence a journalist for speaking the truth about Israel's genocide in Gaza is not just problematic foreign policy—it is an attack on free speech and democracy, the very values our country was built on.
These journalists were not, as Israel falsely claimed, “terrorists.” They were truth-tellers— risking and, too often, losing their lives to ensure the world could see the devastation in Gaza.
Let’s be clear: Sami’s detention was an act of political retaliation; he was a political prisoner. If the government had any evidence to back up the social media smear campaign it launched against him, it would not have released him. Government officials locked a journalist in an ICE cell for more than two weeks while attempting to frighten the public with baseless claims about him, and, in the end, all they proved was their own abuse of power.
When a democratic government detains a journalist because of his criticism of an allied foreign state, it sends a chilling message that freedom of speech in America is conditional: you are free to speak, as long as your words do not challenge U.S. alliances or expose uncomfortable truths.
That’s not democracy—that’s deference.
While the U.S. lectures the world about human rights and freedom of the press, it enables one of the gravest assaults on journalists in modern history (not to mention the most documented genocide). Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 270 journalists and media workers in Gaza. But, as we all know, Israel’s brutal violence against Palestinians didn’t begin on Oct. 7, isn’t limited to the Gaza Strip, and even impacts American citizens. In May 2022, Palestinian American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier while on assignment in the West Bank.
These journalists were not, as Israel falsely claimed, “terrorists.” They were truth-tellers— risking and, too often, losing their lives to ensure the world could see the devastation in Gaza. Their courage represents the highest form of journalism; their deaths expose the moral bankruptcy of the governments that continue to arm and defend their killers.
When the U.S. shields Israel from accountability for its gross human rights violations while simultaneously punishing those who speak out against its actions, it undermines both international law and our own constitutional principles. The First Amendment cannot coexist with an “Israel-First” policy.
This case is bigger than one journalist’s detention; it illustrates the slow erosion of American democracy through the suppression of dissent. If immigration enforcement can be weaponized against critics of Israel, what’s to stop it from being used against anyone who challenges U.S. policy on war, civil rights, or social welfare?
The path forward is clear. The U.S. must reaffirm that free speech and freedom of the press are not conditional on political convenience.
Democracy doesn’t die in a single moment—it crumbles when governments decide which voices may be heard, and which must be silenced. It dies when the pursuit of truth is treated as a threat rather than a public service.
The path forward is clear. The U.S. must reaffirm that free speech and freedom of the press are not conditional on political convenience. Our country’s immigration and national security powers must never be allowed to be abused by Israel-First government officials to punish critics of Israel’s atrocious human rights record. And our government must hold its allies—including Israel—to the same human rights standards it claims to uphold.
Sami’s detention should concern every American, regardless of political or religious affiliation. Because when truth-telling becomes grounds for detention, when journalists are targeted abroad and censored at home, we are not defending democracy—we are dismantling it.
Mandela’s words remind us that a democracy without an independent press is no democracy at all. The question now is whether our leaders still believe that.
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Trump's Ploy at the UN Is American Imperialism Masquerading as a Peace Process
Palestine remains the endless victim of US and Israeli maneuvers. The results are not just devastating for Palestine, which has suffered an outright genocide, but for the Arab world and beyond.
Nov 13, 2025
The Trump administration is pushing an Israeli-crafted resolution at the UN Security Council (UNSC) this week aimed at eliminating the possibility of a State of Palestine. The resolution does three things. It establishes US political control over Gaza. It separates Gaza from the rest of Palestine. And it allows the US, and therefore Israel, to determine the timeline for Israel’s supposed withdrawal from Gaza–which would mean: never.
This is imperialism masquerading as a peace process. In and of itself it’s no surprise. Israel runs US foreign policy in the Middle East. What is a surprise is that the US and Israel might just get away with this travesty unless the world speaks up with urgency and indignation.
The draft UNSC resolution would establish a US-UK-dominated Board of Peace, chaired by none other than Donald Trump himself, and endowed with sweeping powers over Gaza’s governance, borders, reconstruction, and security. This resolution would sideline the State of Palestine and condition any transfer of authority to the Palestinians on the indulgence of the Board of Peace.
This would be an overt return to the British Mandate of 100 years ago, with the only change being that the US would hold the mandate rather than Britain. If it weren’t so utterly tragic, it would be laughable. As Marx said, history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Yes, the proposal is farce, yet Israel’s genocide is not. It is tragedy of the first order.
If it weren’t so utterly tragic, it would be laughable.
Incredibly, according to the draft resolution, the Board of Peace would be granted sovereign powers in Gaza. Palestinian sovereignty is left to the discretion of the Board, which alone would decide when Palestinians are “ready” to govern themselves – perhaps in another 100 years? Even military security is subordinated to the Board, and the envisioned forces would answer not to the UN Security Council or to the Palestinian people, but to the Board’s “strategic guidance.”
The US-Israel resolution is being put forward precisely because the rest of the world—other than Israel and the US—has woken up to two facts. First, Israel is committing genocide, a reality witnessed every day in Gaza and the West Bank, where innocent Palestinians are murdered to the satisfaction of the Israel Defense Forces and the illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Second, Palestine is a state, albeit one whose sovereignty remains obstructed by the US, which uses its veto in the UNSC to block Palestine’s permanent UN membership. At the UN this past July and then again in September, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for Palestine’s statehood, a fact that put the Israel-US Zionist lobby into overdrive, resulting in the current draft resolution.
For Israel to accomplish its goal of Greater Israel, the US is pursuing a classic divide-and-conquer strategy, squeezing Arab and Islamic states with threats and inducements. When other countries resist the US-Israel demands, they are cut off from critical technologies, lose access to World Bank and IMF financing, and suffer Israeli bombing, even in countries with US military bases present. The US offers no real protection; rather, it orchestrates a protection racket, extracting concessions from countries wherever US leverage exists. This extortion will continue until the global community stands up to such tactics and insists upon genuine Palestinian sovereignty and US and Israeli adherence to international law.
Palestine remains the endless victim of US and Israeli maneuvers. The results are not just devastating for Palestine, which has suffered an outright genocide, but for the Arab world and beyond. Israel and the US are currently at war, overtly or covertly, across the Horn of Africa (Libya, Sudan, Somalia), the Eastern Mediterranean (Lebanon, Syria), the Gulf region (Yemen), and Western Asia (Iraq, Iran).
If the UN Security Council is to provide true security in accordance with the UN Charter, it must not yield to US pressures and instead act decisively in line with international law. A resolution truly for peace should include four vital points. First, it should welcome the State of Palestine as a sovereign UN member state, with the US lifting its veto. Second, it should safeguard the territorial integrity of the State of Palestine and Israel, according to the 1967 borders. Third, it should establish a UNSC-mandated protection force drawn up from Muslim-majority states. Fourth, it should include the defunding and disarmament of all belligerent non-state entities, and it should ensure the mutual security of Israel and Palestine.
The two-state solution is about true peace—not about the politicide and genocide of Palestine, or the continued attacks by militants on Israel. It’s time for both Palestinians and Israelis to be safe, and for the US and Israel to give up the cruel delusion of permanently ruling over the Palestinian people.
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