Boyes Hot Springs resident Seth Donnelly has been trying for 14 months to convince his congressional representative, Mike Thompson, to vote against sending more military aid to Israel.
The aid has supported Israel as it carries out an attack against the people of Gaza. This has been going on since Oct. 7, 2023, when Gaza militants crossed the border into Israel and laid siege, leaving some 1,200 Israelis dead and taking approximately 250 hostages.
Israel responded by attacking Gaza, killing an estimated 45,000 Palestinians and displacing most of the region’s 2 million-plus residents. And, according to most reports, the U.S. has supplied some 70 percent of the weaponry for Israel to continue its assault.
“As a teacher, I went through the usual channels,” Donnelly said concerning his attempts to reach Thompson.
Donnelly even invited Thompson to speak before a student human rights group at Rancho Cotate High School, where he taught until he retired. During that meeting students asked Thompson if he would agree to vote against more military aid and Thompson refused.
At that point Donnelly decided to try another tactic, one that is unprecedented as far as he knows. With the help of San Jose civil rights attorneys Dean Royer and Szeto Wong he drafted a class action lawsuit against Fourth District Rep. Mike Thompson and Second District Rep. Jared Huffman, claiming that both men are violating federal and international laws against providing military aid to entities committing human rights violations.
According to the complaint that Royer filed Dec. 19 in San Francisco’s federal district court, the two representatives allegedly “exceeded the constitutional limitations on their tax and spend authority by voting to authorize the funding of the Israeli military when they were aware, or should have been aware, that the Israeli military was committing genocide in Gaza.”
Specifically, the complaint cites the Leahy Law, the Foreign Assistance Law of 1961, and the Arms Export Control Act, all prohibiting aiding countries that commit human rights violations. The vote named in the complaint took place in April of this year and provided over $26 billion in military aid for Israel.
Israel, however, contends that it is acting in self-defense and is not participating in genocide or human rights violations. And the U.S. administration appears to agree with this assertion.
The lawsuit further states that by allegedly violating these federal laws, Thompson and Huffman have caused emotional suffering to many of their constituents, and these constituents are seeking relief, including monetary compensation, which they would donate to the people of Gaza.
So far, 500 people in 10 northern California counties have signed on to the lawsuit as class members. The group formed to promote the lawsuit calls itself Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG).
At a rally held outside the courthouse by the group, Tarik Kanaana, a Palestinian American who lives in Santa Rosa, explained his own distress. “Mike Thompson (Kanaana’s representative) has made me complicit in the killing of my own people and my own homeland,” he said.
Thompson responded to the lawsuit filing in a statement provided by a spokesperson.
“Congressman Thompson understands that it has been the civilian population that has paid the cost of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, and he remains gravely concerned about the scale of the civilian loss in this war. That’s why he has advocated, and continues to advocate, for the Biden Administration to work with the State Department and our allies to help secure a negotiated bilateral ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, and the establishment of a two-state solution to ensure peace and self-determination for the Palestinian and Israeli people. Achieving peace and securing the safety of civilians won’t be accomplished by filing a lawsuit.”
Donnelly agreed with Thompson’s last point, saying he didn’t expect a lawsuit to end shipments of arms to Israel but hoped that if it is successful, it would “send a clear message (that Congress is violating federal laws) and set a precedent.”
Jane Jewell, a member of the class action suit from Marin County, said she and others in the local organization 14 Friends of Palestine have been contacting Jared Huffman’s office daily with no results. And through the lawsuit, they “want to raise awareness that our Congressmen are breaking the law by using our tax dollars to aid Israel’s assault on Gaza.”
Huffman’s office did not have a response. His press secretary said he was busy working to prevent a government shutdown, which was successful.
Royer said it could take months, or even years, before the court rules on the lawsuit.
