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.”

by Brett Wilkins | Nov 16, 2025  

https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2025/11/16/as-israel-keeps-killing-palestinians-tlaib-leads-bill-recognizing-war-on-gaza-as-genocide/

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.”