Document: Letter from over 180 lawyers calls for probe into U.S. citizen war crimes and genocide in Palestine
A previously unpublished open letter to the Biden admin calls for war crime and genocide accountability for American citizens fighting in Palestine
An open letter signed by over 180 attorneys and endorsed by three legal advocacy organizations calls for the Biden administration to investigate possible war crimes and acts of genocide committed by American citizens fighting for the Israel Defense Force (IDF) as well as investigations into Americans for inciting genocide.
The previously unpublished open letter obtained by No Frontiers through a public records request is produced here for readers to review the detailed arguments intended to spur the Biden administration to hold U.S. citizens and Israel accountable for violations of U.S. and international law.
The 24-page letter sent on May 7 was first reported on by POLITICO in late-April while it was still reportedly circulating for signatures and was likely embargoed for full publication. Unless the letter was still being written, the outlet appears to have left out key allegations from these lawyers, including genocide, and illuminated the central levers that would allow federal war crimes and genocide prosecutions against American citizens—charges a U.S. citizen has never received.
You can read the letter here:
The final letter gained signatures from 27 legal professionals across the Biden administration, including Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security, Department of Labor, Social Security Agency, and Department of Energy; 156 legal professionals from the public and private sector, legal academia, American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, and the European Commission; and endorsed by legal groups Democracy for the Arab World Now, Association of Muslim American Lawyers, and Law for Palestine.
The letter urges the DOJ to investigate American citizens serving in the Israel Defense Force (IDF) for possible war crimes as well as acts of genocide:
Approximately 23,380 American citizens currently serve in the IDF. It is plausible that such citizens, especially those deployed to Gaza, have engaged in war crimes or acts of genocide. We strongly urge you to investigate the U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have served or are serving in the IDF for the commission of war crimes and/or acts of genocide.
The letter also urges DOJ to investigate incitement to genocide on American soil:
Further, direct and public incitement to commit genocide is prohibited under the Genocide Convention of 1948, as implemented at 18 U.S.C. § 1091(c), which criminalizes such acts with a legal penalty of 5 years in prison or a fine of not more than $500,000, or both. The statements of Israeli officials referring to Gazans as “human animals,” or “erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth,” are well documented and were considered by the ICJ in its January 26th provisional order. A European NGO, Law For Palestine, has documented over 500 instances of Israeli incitement to genocide. Similar dark statements have found their way onto American soil. We ask you to thoroughly investigate cases of direct and public incitement of the genocide in Gaza committed by U.S. citizens and permanent residents. There is no statute of limitations on war or genocidal crimes in the U.S. Code.
As Israel continues to escalate its bombardment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and has widened its battlefield and targets to include Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran, there has been no shortage of daily documented alleged war crimes or acts of genocide.
But as Israel’s single greatest supplier of weapons and aid, the Biden administration has shown no political will to restrain Israel in its yearlong genocidal terror campaign targeting Palestinian civilians and now invasion and bombardments into neighboring Arab countries.
And while Israel models its escalation after America’s disastrous post-9/11 war on terror, the question many are asking themselves is: Will America or Israel ever be held accountable for how they conduct war?
Perhaps the answer lies in the political and legal mechanism that approves federal war crime and genocide prosecutions. The letter addresses this plainly:
The War Crimes Act requires that any prosecution be certified in writing by the Attorney General of the United States, and permits for the Secretary of Defense and/or Secretary of State to submit their views on this to the Attorney General. Thus, any approval to investigate and/or prosecute U.S. citizens and/or nationals for war crimes can only be decided at the highest levels of government.
No attorney general has ever filed war crimes charges against a U.S. citizen for any conduct in any war, nor has any international court, but not because Americans have never committed a war crime. In fact, the first time the DOJ prosecuted war crimes was on Dec. 6, 2023—less than a year ago—against four members of Russia’s armed forces arrested on U.S. soil, about a year after the War Crimes Act was amended to include prosecution of foreigners within U.S. territorial jurisdiction. After announcing America’s first war crimes indictment, Attorney General Merrick Garland stated “you should expect more.”
On Sept. 3, 2024, the Justice Department unsealed terrorism charges against senior Hamas leadership for its October 7 attack on Israel and no charges as of yet against Israeli civilian or military leadership, despite an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in January ordering Israel to refrain from acts of genocide after its investigation into Israeli conduct and after an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor presented war crime evidence against Israel and Hamas leadership in May to request arrest warrants.
For decades, the U.S. has shown “ironclad” and “unconditional” support for Israel throughout its genocidal war to rid Palestine of Palestinians, yet past presidential administrations have sanctioned and conditioned weapons and aid to pressure Israel for its imperial conduct in the Middle East. Still, America appears to be the only power than can hold itself and Israel accountable.