WASHINGTON

US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and 20 other lawmakers on Friday introduced a resolution declaring that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and urging Washington to meet its legal obligations under the Genocide Convention.

In a statement, Tlaib’s office said the resolution “officially recognizes that the Israeli government has committed the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza” and urges Washington to take action to “prevent and punish genocide,” including halting weapons transfers and supporting international accountability processes.

“The Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza has not ended, and it will not end until we act,” Tlaib said in the statement, accusing the US government of providing “a blank check for war crimes and ethnic cleansing.”

The measure is backed by Representatives Becca Balint, Andre Carson, Greg Casar, Maxine Dexter, Maxwell Alejandro Frost, Jesus G. “Chuy” Garcia, Al Green, Pramila Jayapal, Hank Johnson, Ro Khanna, Summer Lee, Jim McGovern, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Delia Ramirez, Jan Schakowsky, Melanie Stansbury, Jill Tokuda, and Bonnie Watson Coleman.

It states that Israeli forces have carried out acts constituting genocide, citing mass civilian killings, forced starvation, “systematic destruction” of civil, water, and health infrastructure, and statements by senior Israeli officials that it says show genocidal intent, including former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s Oct. 9, 2023 remark: “We are imposing a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel.”

International bodies, including the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, and other rights groups, have concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide.

In September, a UN commission formally found that Israel had committed genocide in the enclave, where the ICC also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army has killed over 69,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave all but uninhabitable and led to starvation and the proliferation of disease.

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Government Affairs Director Robert S. McCaw said in a statement that recognizing the genocide in Gaza is “only the beginning”, adding: “Local governments and state legislatures will be encouraged to introduce and pass similar genocide-recognition resolutions nationwide throughout the coming year.”

He added that communities everywhere must be able to demand an end to US weapons transfers and “call for real consequences” for those involved in the atrocities.