119-hres876

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 876 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
H. RES. 876

 Recognizing the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 November 13, 2025

Ms. Tlaib (for herself, Ms. Balint, Mr. Carson, Mr. Casar, Ms. Dexter, 
Mr. Frost, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. Green of Texas, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. 
Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Khanna, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Mr. McGovern, 
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Omar, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Pressley, Mrs. Ramirez, Ms. 
Simon, Ms. Velazquez, and Mrs. Watson Coleman) submitted the following 
 resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

 RESOLUTION

 Recognizing the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Whereas the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 
 (Genocide Convention) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly 
 on December 9, 1948;
Whereas the United States played a key role in drafting the Genocide Convention, 
 ratified the convention on November 5, 1988, and remains a party to the 
 convention today;
Whereas, under the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide is committed when 
 one or more categories of underlying acts are committed with intent to 
 destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious 
 group as such, namely--

    (1) killing members of the group;

    (2) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

    (3) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated 
to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

    (4) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or

    (5) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group;

Whereas the Genocide Convention obligates all state parties, including the 
 United States, to prevent and punish the crime of genocide;
Whereas the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987 (also known as the 
 ``Proxmire Act'') was passed by Congress and signed into law in 1988, 
 establishing the criminal offense of genocide within the United States 
 Code;
Whereas the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on 
 the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel 
 concluded on September 16, 2025, that the State of Israel has committed 
 and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza;
Whereas the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the world's leading 
 subject matter experts on genocide, concluded that the State of Israel 
 has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza;
Whereas highly respected international, Palestinian, and Israeli human rights 
 organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors 
 Without Borders, Al-Haq, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al 
 Mezan Center for Human Rights, B'Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights 
 Israel, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Forensic 
 Architecture, and the University Network for Human Rights have concluded 
 that the State of Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in 
 Gaza;
Whereas the overwhelming evidence is clear that the State of Israel has 
 committed acts (actus reus) within the scope of the Genocide Convention 
 against Palestinians in Gaza, including by--

    (1) killing members of the group;

    (2) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

    (3) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated 
to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and

    (4) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

Whereas the Israeli military has killed at least 67,160 Palestinians in Gaza, 
 the majority of whom are women and children, since October 2023;
Whereas existing evidence and expert analysis indicate that this death toll is 
 likely a severe undercount, with thousands more Palestinians buried 
 under the rubble and countless more dead as a result of siege, forced 
 starvation, and the systematic destruction of civil, water, and health 
 infrastructure;
Whereas the Israeli military's own data, as of May 2025, indicates that 83 
 percent of Palestinians killed in Gaza were civilians;
Whereas the Israeli military has wounded at least 169,679 Palestinians in Gaza, 
 creating the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history;
Whereas doctors treating patients in Gaza, including doctors from the United 
 States, have routinely treated children shot in the head or chest;
Whereas, according to UNICEF, nearly all of Gaza's 1,200,000 children need 
 mental health and psychosocial support, especially those exposed to 
 repeated traumatic events, those who have been maimed, those who have 
 lost parents, siblings, and close family members, and those with 
 disabilities;
Whereas over 500 schools and every university in Gaza have been destroyed or 
 severely damaged by Israeli forces, systematically destroying the 
 education system;
Whereas at least 53 percent of cultural heritage sites in Gaza have been 
 systematically destroyed or damaged, including hundreds of mosques and 
 churches;
Whereas at least 250 journalists and media workers have been killed by the 
 Israeli military, many of them directly targeted for their work;
Whereas 78 percent of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or severely 
 damaged, including 92 percent of all residential buildings, as well as 
 77 percent of Gaza's roads;
Whereas at least 1,900,000 people, around 90 percent of Gaza's population, have 
 been forcibly displaced from their homes, most of them multiple times, 
 often forced to live in unsanitary and inhumane conditions, and whereas 
 fleeing civilians have been targeted and killed along evacuation routes 
 and in shelters designated by Israeli authorities as safe zones;
Whereas the capacity for agriculture and food production has been decimated and 
 just 1.5 percent of cropland remains accessible, undamaged, and suitable 
 for cultivation;
Whereas, since October 9, 2023, the Israeli Government's blockade and siege of 
 Gaza has cut off essential, lifesaving resources, blocking nearly all 
 food, baby formula, and humanitarian aid from entry and severely 
 restricting access to clean water, fuel, and electricity;
Whereas, as a result of the siege, more than 90 percent of the population in 
 Gaza has been facing acute food insecurity since December 2023, and 
 whereas since August 2025, over 500,000 people are experiencing famine 
 and catastrophic levels of food insecurity, with at least 455 recorded 
 malnutrition-related deaths;
Whereas, by August 2025, the Israeli Government's siege and forced starvation 
 left more than 54,600 children under 5 in Gaza acutely malnourished and 
 more than 12,800 severely malnourished, with around 16 percent of 
 children in Gaza aged 6 months to just under 5 years suffering from a 
 life-threatening type of malnutrition known as acute wasting, including 
 nearly 4 percent with severe wasting, facing increased risk of death if 
 untreated;
Whereas, since the establishment of militarized food distribution sites on May 
 27, 2025, Israeli forces and armed private contractors have shot and 
 killed at least 2,340 desperate Palestinians seeking food assistance;
Whereas the Israeli military has killed at least 543 aid workers, including 
 personnel of the United Nations, Doctors Without Borders, World Central 
 Kitchen, and the Palestine Red Crescent Society;
Whereas the health care system of Gaza has been systematically destroyed, with 
 the destruction of Gaza's hospitals leaving only 1 field hospital 
 remaining fully functional, with at least 1,581 doctors, nurses, and 
 other health workers killed by Israeli forces, and with at least 180 
 documented attacks on ambulances;
Whereas the bodies of Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers killed by 
 Israeli forces were found zip-tied with gunshot wounds to the head and 
 chest buried in a mass grave;
Whereas the destruction of Gaza's health care, sanitation, housing, and water 
 infrastructure has significantly contributed to the outbreak, rapid 
 spread, and increased mortality of infectious and communicable diseases, 
 including hepatitis A, dysentery, typhoid, scabies, and acute 
 respiratory infection;
Whereas the decimation of the health care system, including reproductive and 
 sexual health care, as well as the siege's impact on the availability of 
 food, medicine, baby formula, and clean drinking water, have had a 
 particularly harmful effect on pregnant, postpartum, and lactating 
 women, infants, and the overall fertility and reproductive prospects of 
 the population;
Whereas a targeted Israeli attack destroyed the Al-Basma IVF clinic, the largest 
 fertility center in Gaza, eliminating around 4,000 embryos and 1,000 
 sperm samples and unfertilized eggs;
Whereas Israeli forces have killed at least 1,009 infants under the age of 1, 
 including 450 babies who were both born and killed since October 2023;
Whereas, by September 2024, overall life expectancy in Gaza suffered a drastic 
 decrease of 34.9 years or 46.3 percent of preinvasion life expectancy, 
 with researchers noting the actual losses are likely higher if the 
 indirect effects of the war on mortality are considered;
Whereas a clear pattern of statements made by Israeli authorities, including but 
 not limited to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac 
 Herzog, former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, current Minister of 
 Defense Israel Katz, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, and 
 Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, provides direct evidence of 
 genocidal intent (mens rea), as demonstrated by such examples as--

    (1) then-Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant stating on October 9, 
2023, ``We are imposing a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. No electricity, 
no food, no water, no fuel--everything is closed. We are fighting human 
animals, and we act accordingly'';

    (2) Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories

    (COGAT) Major General Ghassan Alian announcing on October 10, 2023, that ``Israel 
has imposed a total blockade on Gaza, no electricity, no water, just 
damage. You wanted hell, you will get hell'';

    (3) then-Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure and now Israeli 
Minister of Defense Israel Katz stating on October 11, 2023, that ``we 
decided to stop the flow of water, electricity and fuel and now their local 
power station has collapsed and there is no electricity in Gaza'';

    (4) Israeli President Isaac Herzog stating on October 13, 2023, that 
``It's an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true, this 
rhetoric about civilians who were aware and not involved. It is absolutely 
not true'';

    (5) Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu writing a letter to Israeli 
soldiers and commanders on November 3, 2023, saying, ``Remember what Amalek 
did to you. We remember and we fight'', a reference to the Book of Samuel, 
in which God tells the Israelites, ``Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly 
destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, 
child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey'', rhetoric that has since 
been repeatedly echoed by other government officials, including Israeli 
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who stated in April 2024 that ``There are 
no half measures. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat--total annihilation. `You 
will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven'--there's no 
place under heaven'';

    (6) Colonel Erez Eshel stating on November 4, 2023, that ``It will take 
so many years to revive from this blow . . . this place will be a fallow 
land. They will not be able to live here''; and

    (7) a recording of Major General Aharon Haliva, head of Israel's 
Military Intelligence until April 2024, published on August 15, 2025, in 
which he stated that ``the fact that 50,000 have already been killed in 
Gaza is necessary and required for future generations . . . it does not 
matter if they are children. I'm not speaking out of revenge. I'm talking 
about a message for future generations. From time to time, they need a 
Nakba to feel the cost'', referring to the violent ethnic cleansing of over 
750,000 Palestinians from their homes and homeland by Zionist militias and 
the Israeli army during the establishment of the State of Israel in 1947 to 
1949;

Whereas the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on November 21, 
 2024, for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli 
 Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, charging both with the war crimes of 
 starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an 
 attack against a civilian population, as well as the crimes against 
 humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts;
Whereas the United States became a party to the Statute of the International 
 Court of Justice when it ratified the United Nations Charter in 1945 and 
 remains a party to the Statute today;
Whereas the International Court of Justice ordered binding provisional measures 
 in the case Application of the Convention on the Prevention and 
 Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. 
 Israel) on January 26, 2024, on March 28, 2024, and on May 24, 2024, 
 requiring specific actions from the State of Israel to prevent the 
 commission of acts within the scope of the Genocide Convention;
Whereas, through these provisional measures, the International Court of Justice 
 put all third states on notice of a serious risk that genocide was being 
 or would be committed;
Whereas the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry found 
 that the State of Israel has acted in flagrant disregard of the 
 International Court of Justice's binding orders;
Whereas, between October 2023 and September 2025, the United States provided an 
 estimated $21,700,000,000 in military aid to Israel, and during that 
 same period, the White House authorized or notified over $30,000,000,000 
 in additional new arms sales agreements to be paid for and delivered in 
 future years; and
Whereas the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry, 
 having concluded that the State of Israel has committed and is 
 continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, called on 
 all countries to fulfill their legal obligations to prevent and punish 
 the crime of genocide, and laid out concrete steps for third states, 
 such as the United States, to take to meet these binding obligations: 
 Now, therefore, be it
 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
it is the policy of the United States to--

    (1) prevent and punish the crime of genocide, wherever it 
 occurs;

    (2) officially recognize that the State of Israel has 
 committed the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people 
 in Gaza;

    (3) respect the United States binding legal obligations as 
 a party to the Genocide Convention and under customary 
 international law to prevent and punish the crime of genocide 
 in Gaza, employing all means reasonably available, including 
 by--
        (A) ceasing the transfer of arms and other 
 equipment or items to the State of Israel or third 
 states where there is reason to suspect their use in 
 military operations that have involved or could involve 
 the commission of genocide;
        (B) ensuring that the State of Israel duly 
 implements all provisional measures ordered by the 
 International Court of Justice since January 26, 2024;
            (C) ensuring that individuals and corporations in 
 the United States and within United States jurisdiction 
 are not involved in the commission of genocide, aiding 
 and assisting the commission of genocide, or incitement 
 to commit genocide, and investigating and prosecuting 
 those who may be implicated in these crimes under 
 international law;
            (D) facilitating investigations and domestic 
 proceedings and taking action, including imposing 
 targeted, lawful sanctions, with respect to the State 
 of Israel and individuals or corporations that are 
 involved in or facilitating the commission of genocide 
 or incitement to commit genocide; and
        (E) cooperating with the investigation of the 
 Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal 
 Court
            (ICC) and lifting all ICC-related United States 
 sanctions;

    (4) use the United States voice and vote in the United 
 Nations Security Council and the United Nations General 
 Assembly to advance efforts to prevent and punish the crime of 
 genocide in Gaza; and

    (5) ensure that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency 
 for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

    (UNRWA) is robustly 
 funded to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinians 
 facing genocide in Gaza.
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