Quick Take
Four Santa Cruz County locals, including author Unhae Langis, have joined a Northern California class action lawsuit known as Taxpayers Against Genocide, which charges that congressional representatives – including Rep. Jimmy Panetta and Sen. Alex Padilla – abused their “tax and spend” authority when they voted to allocate $26.38 billion in military aid to Israel on April 20, 2024. “The lawsuit appeals to the moral revulsion of American taxpayers who condemn genocide to defend a shared humanity,” Langis writes.
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Two weeks ago, I joined an unprecedented Northern California class action lawsuit known as Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG). The lawsuit now includes U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, whom I see as one of the most right-wing Democrats serving today for his support of the war in Gaza and Israel’s occupation agenda.
Three other District 19 residents – UC Santa Cruz professor and director of the Center for Racial Justice Christine Hong, and two other members of the Panetta Vigil Group for Palestinian Human Rights, Peter Klotz-Chamberlin and Meg Sandow – joined me as plaintiffs.
More than 500 federal taxpayers across 10 Northern California counties filed the class action lawsuit last December against two other Democratic members of Congress, Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson. The lawsuit charged that Huffman and Thompson, unlike Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Ro Khanna, illegally abused their “tax and spend” authority when they voted to allocate $26.38 billion in military aid to Israel on April 20, 2024.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants’ action violates the U.S. Constitution, the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, and U.S. federal laws.
An amended complaint, filed Jan. 17, extends to 18 California counties and adds Panetta, Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Kevin Mullin and Anna Eshoo, Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin as defendants.
The lawsuit has ignited interest nationwide, as most Americans favored an arms embargo on Israel during the Gaza war. For months to no avail, taxpayers of conscience have entreated their representatives to stop arms shipments and to end our funding of genocide. More than 47,000 deaths later, these public officials will be held accountable for abetting crimes against humanity and for violating fiduciary obligations to their constituents.
In addition to the 47 plaintiffs, almost 2,000 people have signed on as members of the class action, and many more are expected to do so in the coming weeks. Beyt Tikkun synagogue in Berkeley has endorsed the lawsuit.
In the past 15 months, Israel, in response to the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, has carpet bombed Gaza, killing far more than 61,000 people, at least 167 journalists, 333 U.N. workers and 1,000 health workers. In destroying 74% of buildings and 70% of orchards, confiscating water and blocking humanitarian aid, I believe Israel has perpetrated scholasticide, ecocide and ethnic cleansing.
The lawsuit appeals to the moral revulsion of American taxpayers who condemn genocide to defend a shared humanity.
Because the judicial branch has rarely been willing to interfere with the foreign policy decisions of the legislative or executive branch, the lawsuit will have a tough time getting to trial. But that would be missing the point, as plaintiff Norman Solomon, author of “War Made Easy” and “War Made Invisible,” explains, “While the defendants may triumph legally, victory will tend to be Pyrrhic — winning in federal court, but losing in the court of public opinion.”
Solomon predicts, “Dozens of members of Congress, mostly Democrats, are likely to be facing class-action lawsuits from constituents accusing them of illegal and immoral complicity in genocide. … Drawing media attention to congressional votes for massive arms shipments to Israel will expose lawmakers who staked out positions opposed by the majority of voters.”
Exposure is exactly the aim of a broad coalition of Palestine justice and human rights groups in District 19.
Jimmy Panetta has been a staunch supporter of Israel’s occupation of Palestine and war in Gaza. He received $273,700 from pro-Israel funders and over $275,000 from the arms industry in the 2023-24 campaign fundraising cycle.
He also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel just before the November election.Panetta was one of 45 Democrats to vote with the GOP on Jan. 9, to pass HR 23, the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, sanctioning the International Criminal Court over Netanyahu’s arrest warrant.
In December 2024, he was one of 15 Democrats who joined Republicans to support HR 9495, which I see an unconstitutional attack on free speech targeting Palestinian rights activists as pro-Hamas terrorists. This “nonprofit killer” bill would empower the Treasury Secretary to unilaterally designate a nonprofit as a “terrorist-supporting organization.”
Panetta was part of an August 2024 bipartisan congressional delegation to Australia and the Philippines which I see as promoting U.S. militarism.
Panetta prides himself on assisting his constituents in getting visas and navigating federal bureaucracy, but has not helped expedite humanitarian parole applications for 21 family members of Palestinian American teacher Rolla Alaydi to get them out of Gaza. What his local office reports as “assistance” has been, according to Alaydi, “boilerplate” non-action for almost a year.
Panetta’s support of Netanyahu’s policy conflicts with his website self-description: “As a former prosecutor, I delivered justice for victims and their families and worked to reduce violent crime.”
If you are worried about your tax dollars used to fund a genocide in Palestine, please join the Taxpayers Against Genocide lawsuit to hold our representatives accountable for this outrage to our values and to the social contract. You can also share your views at Panetta’s virtual town hall meeting on Monday at 5:30 p.m. by signing in at panetta.house.gov/live.
A former high school and college teacher, Unhae Langis is an artist-activist and a scholar of Shakespeare and wisdom traditions. She is the immigrant daughter of refugees who endured occupation, two wars, and fled North Korea in 1948, the same year as the Palestinian Nakba. She has lived in Santa Cruz for 14 years. For more information, contact TAG.
Editor’s note: Lookout editors have corrected this article to reflect that Rep. Jimmy Panetta did not travel to the Philippines with the congressional delegation. He joined it in Australia.