US lawmakers introduce resolution to recognize Israel’s assault on Gaza as genocide News
By Jaber Jehad Badwan - Jaber Jehad Badwan, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
US lawmakers introduce resolution to recognize Israel’s assault on Gaza as genocide

Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib on Friday introduced a resolution in the US Congress to recognize Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide. This resolution, if passed, would officially recognize that the Israeli government has committed the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Co-sponsored by 21 Democratic lawmakers, Resolution H.RES. 876 urges the US government to fulfill its obligations under the Genocide Convention. It specifically calls for an immediate halt to all relevant arms and equipment transfers to Israel, the investigation and prosecution of the US-based individuals and corporations complicit in acts of genocide, and the imposition of targeted, lawful sanctions against the State of Israel.

“Impunity only enables more atrocity,” Representative Tlaib emphasized, “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 are made in the USA.”

Since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, the US has provided $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel, while approving over $30 billion in new arms sales agreements, including fighter jets, tank shells, and precision-guided munitions.

The resolution invokes the Genocide Convention‘s definition of genocide: acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, including: (a) killing its members, (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm, and (c) deliberately inflicting conditions of life intended to bring about the group’s physical destruction.

Despite the US-brokered ceasefire announced last month, Israeli forces have continued killing Palestinians, with air strikes persisting. According to the United Nations estimates as of November 2025, Israeli actions in Gaza have resulted in more than 69,185 deaths, including over 20,000 children. In September 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry released a report concluding that Israeli authorities have committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In addition, the International Association of Genocide Scholars has documented war crimes by Israel against civilians in Gaza, such as torture, arbitrary detention, sexual violence, attacks on medical and humanitarian workers, and deliberate deprivation of food, water, medicine, and electricity.

THIS DAY @ LAW

European Community established

On January 1, 1958, the European Community (EC), the predecessor to the European Union (EU), was created when the Treaty of Rome officially went into effect. This represented the culmination of efforts since the end of World War II to closely tie the nations of Europe as a way of preventing future wars. The original members were France, West Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The EC has since expanded to become the EU, encompassing most of Europe in the fifty years since its creation. Learn more about the early development of the EC from 1945 through 1959.

Emancipation Proclamation final version issued

On January 1, 1863, US President Abraham Lincoln issued the final version of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in states in rebellion against the Union. Lincoln had issued a previous version in September 1862, warning of the January action. Learn more about the Emancipation Proclamation.