Two Bay Area House reps face class-action suit for supporting Israel aid

Northern California residents are suing their Democratic congressional representatives over their votes to fund Israel's military, claiming emotional distress and seeking to block future aid.

By ASAF ELIA-SHALEV/JTA DECEMBER 24, 2024 03:51 Updated: DECEMBER 24, 2024 03:52

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters are gathered to protest the Israeli offensives in Gaza outside the Federal Building in San Francisco, May 31, 2024. (photo credit: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A group of Northern California residents has filed a class-action lawsuit against their congressional representatives, Democrats Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, accusing them of causing harm to local communities and to Palestinians in Gaza by voting to send billions in US military aid to Israel.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court, claims the lawmakers caused “moral and emotional/psychic injury” to taxpayers by voting for aid that, the plaintiffs allege, contributes to genocide in Gaza. Both Israel and the Biden administration reject that Israel is committing genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

The lawsuit is the latest example of how debates over Israel and Gaza have moved to the courts since the outbreak of the war following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Several months ago, federal courts dismissed a lawsuit by pro-Palestinian groups, also filed in the Bay Area, accusing the Biden administration of complicity in a genocide. A federal appeals court panel confirmed a ruling by a lower court that the judiciary cannot intervene to change the government’s foreign policy.

Survivors of the Oct. 7 attack and Jewish groups have filed a series of suits over the attack against pro-Palestinian nonprofits, the United Nations’ Palestinian aid agency UNRWA and foreign governments allied with Hamas. In addition, Jewish students have filed suit against multiple universities accusing them of not taking sufficient measures against antisemitism on campus. 

The Bay Area case seeks to bar Thompson and Huffman from approving future military aid to Israel and demands damages for the emotional distress caused by war, including “uncontrollable weeping, inability to sleep, distractions from work, despair for the future of their children and humanity.”

People hold placards and flags during a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, ahead of the October 7 attack anniversary, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Dublin, Ireland October 5, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/CLODAGH KILCOYNE)

At a press conference outside the courthouse where the lawsuit was filed, Linda Helland, a Mendocino County resident and plaintiff, said the representatives’ votes make her and other constituents “complicit” in the violence. Another plaintiff, Palestinian American Tarik Kanaana of Sonoma County, said Thompson’s actions amounted to aiding in “the killing of my own people.”

Nearly two dozen plaintiffs so far

Twenty one plaintiffs are named in the lawsuit but organizers are aiming to add as many as 1,000 participants if the court allows the lawsuit to proceed. A lawyer for the plaintiffs said the lawsuit, with its focus on the rights of taxpayers, was designed differently than the one that was tossed out.

“We’re not asking the court to tell Congress to make policy,” attorney Dean Royer told the Chronicle. “We’re asking the court to say taxpayer dollars cannot be used to fund genocide.”

The positions of Thompson and Huffman reflect those of many Democratic lawmakers who back Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas, but have called for minimizing civilian casualties. In April, they voted in favor of a $26.4 billion military aid package for Israel. Thompson and Huffman have also expressed support for a ceasefire and long-term solutions, including a two-state framework that would see a Palestinian state established alongside Israel. 

“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 civilian loss in this war,” read a statement from the congressman’s office to local media. “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.”