Sign the TAAG Letter Against Genocide

The TAAG letter

https://form.jotform.com/262655722086159

We, the undersigned human rights organizations and advocates, within and beyond the United States, call upon the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other top U.S. officials for their ongoing aiding and abetting of the crime of genocide and other international crimes against the Palestinian people, including war crimes and crimes against humanity and to take all appropriate legal action based on the findings of those investigations.

We support the Article 15 submission to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor made by the Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide, which contains substantial evidence of U.S. officials’ complicity in—and direct enablement of—the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against the Palestinian people.

We further urge the ICC to request cooperation from States Parties to gather evidence; protect witnesses and victims who may come forward; and issue public statements affirming the ICC’s jurisdiction over crimes committed in Palestine.

We oppose the Trump Administration’s attacks on the ICC and recognize them as a transparent attempt to shield U.S. and Israeli officials from prosecution, undertaken in open defiance of international law. These attacks are not incidental; they are a direct assault on the international legal order and the principle of individual accountability for international crimes embodied in the Nuremberg Principles.

The ongoing genocide in Palestine has been extensively documented by UN agencies and experts, leading human rights organizations, genocide scholars, legal scholars, medical organizations, journalists, and many others. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice found a plausible case that Israel was violating the rights of Palestinians in Gaza under the Genocide Convention and issued provisional measures requiring Israel to prevent acts within the scope of the Convention. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Yet the senior U.S. officials, from the current and previous administrations, who have armed, funded, enabled, and politically protected Israel’s genocide—including President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—have so far escaped comparable scrutiny and accountability, even as they attack and threaten to destroy the ICC for pursuing Israeli officials.

The genocide in Palestine could not have occurred—nor continue to date—without the conscious, active participation of U.S. officials, including the provision of thousands of MK-84 2,000-pound bombs; the appropriation of approximately $25.5 billion in military assistance since 7 October 2023; the repeated vetoes of UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions; the defunding of 400 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) food distribution centers in Gaza; and support for only four Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) centers despite documented mass casualties at these sites. The Trump administration has also established a so-called “Board of Peace,” which has been facilitatating the expanding ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza, institutionalizing the forced displacement of the Palestinian population, and entrenching foreign control over Palestinian territory.

The U.S. government’s own National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) report of May 2024 concluded that “it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its International Human Rights obligations.” Despite this documented knowledge, since taking office on 20 January 2025, President Trump and Secretary Rubio have lifted the hold on 2,000-pound bombs; repealed NSM-20, which required assurances of compliance with international law; and waived Congressional review for over $4 billion in emergency military assistance.

Additionally, the Trump administration’s sanctions against ICC personnel, its threats against the Prosecutor, and its efforts to intimidate witnesses and evidence providers may themselves constitute offenses against the administration of justice. To the extent such conduct falls within the scope of Article 70 of the Rome Statute, it should be investigated and addressed accordingly.

The ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of a State Party—regardless of the perpetrator’s nationality. Palestine is a State Party, and the crimes committed there fall within the Court’s jurisdiction, including crimes perpetrated by nationals of States that are not parties to the Rome Statute. Accordingly, the nationality of U.S. or Israeli officials does not place their conduct beyond the Court’s jurisdiction.

Beyond Palestine, we note with alarm an escalating pattern of unlawful uses of force under the Trump administration—including the bombing of Iran, the siege of Cuba, the ongoing occupation of Haiti, and the invasion and plunder of Venezuela—which constitute grave violations of international law and warrant accountability.

No government official is above the law. Nearly sixty years ago, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the United States government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” His words have never been truer. The ICC must act to demonstrate that it will not look away while the most powerful officials in the world commit grave international crimes with impunity.