CAIR-NY to Join Taxpayers Against Genocide and National Lawyers Guild to Announce International Legal Complaint Against U.S. for Funding Gaza Genocide

(NEW YORK, NY, 9/2/2025) – On Thursday, September 4, the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY), a chapter of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, will join a press conference hosted by Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG) and the National Lawyers Guild International Committee (NLG) to announce international legal action against the US government for funding the genocide in Gaza. 


WHAT: CAIR-NY, Coalition of US Taxpayers to Join News Conference to Take International Legal Action Against the US Government for Funding the Gaza Genocide 

WHEN: Thursday, September 4, Noon 
WHERE: Foley Square, 60 Center Street 
CONTACT: 

 

One of the press conference speakers, a Palestinian-American mother, will tell the story of how she lost more than one hundred family members to destruction funded by her own tax dollars.

Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG), the National Lawyers Guild International Committee (NLG), and Palestinian-American petitioners will hold a press conference to discuss the international legal action they are taking against the US government for participation in the genocide in Gaza. TAG is a growing grassroots movement, representing more than 3,000 taxpayers across the United States backing this legal action.

This initial phase of the legal action involves filing a historic legal complaint against the US government with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR), the official human rights body in the Western Hemisphere established by the Organization of American States (OAS). This is the only legal complaint in the world that directly takes on the US government– including the Biden and Trump Administrations, and Congress– for its role in the genocide.

The complaint is endorsed by a wide range of organizations,  including US Palestinian Community Network, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP),  American Muslims for Palestine (AMP),  Global Exchange, and CODEPINK, as well as by publicly prominent individuals such as Mahmoud Khalil and Dr. Cornel West.


Participants in the press conference will include:

  • Legal Complaint Attorneys: Huwaida Arraf, lead counsel, human rights attorney, and co-founder of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, and Maria Kari, co-counsel, member of Mahmoud Khalil’s legal team, as well as executive director or Project TAHA.

  • Legal Complaint Petitioners: Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian-American human rights activist, best selling author, with eyewitness experience in Gaza; Monadel Herzallah  Palestinian-American activist and co-founder of US Palestinian Community Network who has lost 44 family members to the genocide; and Hadil El Wahidy, Palestinian-American business owner, community leader, and activist who has lost more than 100 family members to the genocide.

  • Retired US Government Official and “Whistleblower”: Anthony Aguilar, a retired U.S. Green Beret, a former contractor in Gaza, and an eyewitness to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “death traps”.

  • Leaders of Major Civil Society Organizations: Afaf Nasher, Executive Director, CAIR-NY; Dr. Jill Stein, former Presidential candidate, Green Party US; Jacqueline Luqman, Chair, Coordinating Committee, Black Alliance for Peace (BAP); Afaf Nasher, Executive Director, CAIR-NY; Wassim Kanaan, Chair for the New Jersey Chapter, American Muslims for Palestine; Marco Castillo, Co-Executive Director, Global Exchange; and leaders of other endorsing organizations such as PYM. 

Following the press conference, there will be a March to Irish Hunger Memorial Park, with stops along the way at corporations profiting from the genocide.


Quotes by Press Conference and March Participants:

Monadel Herzallah, Lead Petitioner:

“I joined this complaint because the United States government needs to be held accountable for its aiding and abetting a genocide. Nothing is going to bring back the 44 family members we lost, but we can give them the justice they deserve by holding their murderers accountable for their crimes. And as a US citizen and tax payer, I am disgusted by the use of my money to kill children instead of improving the lives of my fellow Americans here at home.”

Hadil El Wahidy, Lead Petitioner:

“I am a Muslij Palestinian-American woman living in New York with my husband and four children. Since Ocotober 7, 2023, over 100 members of my family have been killed in Gaza. We are not just statistics– we are professionals, scholars, children, and community leaders. Yet we are constantly dehumanized. Despite being a taxpayer and US citizen, I feel betrayed by the continuing funding of a genocide, that has devastated my family.”

Huwaida Arraf, lead attorney:

“We’re bringing this case before the Inter-American Commission because the United States has effectively shielded itself from any kind of accountability for its international crimes, including genocide, from its own domestic courts…. Here’s the thing: it is our tax dollars that are being used to commit these crimes. Every dollar sent without condition is another bullet, another bomb, another bulldozer being used to destroy Palestinian livs and futures.”

Maria Kari, co-counsel:

“Our petition provides damning evidence of the myriad ways in which the United States government has funneled billions in our tax dollars to turn Gaza into a graveyard for thousands of civilians. The truth is the US is not a bystander to Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. It is a key enabler. We turn to the IACHR to ask it to do what U.S. courts, Congress and the administration cannot or will not to do: to put a halt to the American government’s complicity in genocide.”

Anthony Aguilar, a retired U.S. Green Beret, a former contractor in Gaza:

“Direct U.S. government participation and funding in the Gaza Humanitarian Fund as a militarized outsourced aid model, that weaponizes hunger to control and forcibly displace civilians in Gaza, makes the U.S. a party to the conflict in Gaza under international law, and U.S. personnel assisting forces who commit war crimes should face prosecution.”

Jacqueline Luqman, Chair, Coordinating Committee, Black Alliance for Peace:

“In the face of insufficient action to end the bloodshed in Gaza, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is joining Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG) in a legal effort to halt U.S. support for Israel's violence and hold officials accountable. We condemn the use of critical taxpayer resources to fund brutality abroad while needs go unmet at home. As residents here face financial hardship, we demand that public funds no longer be used for war but to improve the standard of living for all. The message is simple: fund people's needs, not genocide.”

Marco Castillo, Co-Executive Director, Global Exchange:

“Israel might be pulling the trigger, but it is our money that is paying for the guns and bombs. Therefore, it is our responsibility to demand the U.S. government to stop using our taxes to fund the genocide and this will only happen through mass mobilization and more legal actions like this one”. 


Afaf Nasher, Esq, CAIR-NY Executive Director:

“The U.S. government cannot continue funding and enabling the atrocities in Gaza with impunity. This historic legal action sends a clear message: taxpayers refuse to be complicit in war crimes and genocide. We will use every lawful means to demand accountability and to uphold the fundamental human rights that our nation claims to stand for.” 

 

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CONTACT: Afaf Nasher, Esq. CAIR-NY Executive Director, ANasher@cair.com; CAIR-NY Communications Team, comms@ny.cair.com; Seth Donnelly, Co-Founder, TAG, at ph: 650-814-8495 or taxpayersagainstgenocide@gmail.com

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