Re: Huffman and Genocide

Editor:

I read with interest the article on the class action lawsuit filed against Representatives Huffman and Thompson (“Group Brings Class Action Suit Against Huffman,” Dec. 26). As the article lays out in detail, the suit should be DOA for numerous reasons under well-established precedent. However, I would go further and argue that the plaintiffs’ lawyers should be sanctioned for filing a frivolous lawsuit regarding a serious subject. I decry the waste of judicial resources in going through the procedural motions to dismiss a suit so utterly lacking in merit that it should never have been filed.

On a different note, Mr. Greenson should be informed that my alma mater Hastings College of the Law has corrected a historic injustice and has changed its name to The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. This change was made after a historical review of the legacy of former California Gov. and Supreme Court J ustice Serranus Clinton Hastings (who founded the law school in 1878) determined that he orchestrated the killings of Native Americans in order to remove them from ranch land he purchased in Northern California.

James Weseman, Eureka

Editor:

California Representative Mike Thompson and Congressmember Jared Huffman want voters to believe that their public condemnations of the ongoing 14-month genocide in Gaza, (so far, claiming the lives of more than 20,000 children), is somehow consistent with their violations of multiple domestic and international laws every time they vote to approve billions in additional funding for weapons used by Israel to kill Palestinian civilians.

Thompson asserts that the lawsuit he faces with Huffman, filed on behalf of 500 outraged California residents, won’t accomplish peace and security for Palestinians, yet, it exposes our elected representatives’ hypocrisy that will be remembered as one of the darkest eras in local, state, national and world history.

Last Nov. 5, 110 million potential, voting-age Americans abstained or voted third party, many sharing the plaintiffs’ outrage and disgust over the choice of electing a corrupt Republican authoritarian for U.S. president or a bipartisan, business-as-usual Democrat, both hell-bent on arming Israel’s genocide.

Nationwide, media self-censorship and the complicity and hypocrisy of officials have emboldened the people seen waving U.S. and Israeli flags at the county courthouse, using a megaphone to shout “coward” at anyone daring to say “genocide.”

All elected officials complicit in arming crimes against humanity merit warrants for their arrest, joining the first Israeli prime minister failing to accompany Germany’s chancellor during the annual remembrance of the Holocaust in Poland … for fear of arrest.

“Coward?”

George Clark, Eureka

Editor:

Congressman Huffman can help stop the genocidal actions by the government of Israel. All he has to do is say no to unconditional funding. He would do well to listen to his constituents, the majority of whom are against funding the current Israeli government. It’s better to not be complicit in the mass killings of civilians.

Mr. Huffman cites the horrors of Oct. 7 to justify sending weapons to the government. But what about the ethnic cleansing and massacres of the Palestinian people that have gone on since 1947. He states Israel has the right to defend itself. Everyone has the right to defend themselves, including the Palestinians.

It’s crazy to give unconditional funding to Israel or any country. Israel needs U.S. funding to survive, so why not exercise leverage?

By all means protect the Jewish people. But also protect the Palestinians.

Rather than supporting war criminals and their crimes, it’s better to call for their arrest. Mr. Netanyahu has been rightly accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Mr. Huffman, please call for Netanyahu’s arrest. Arresting him will help bring peace to the Middle East.

Violence shouldn’t be tolerated in the Holy Land. Anyone who commits horrific violence or organizes its execution, whether Jew or Arab, needs to be arrested. The best path to peace is to take an even-handed approach. Mr. Huffman, please support a neutral peace keeping force in Israel

The Iron Dome politicians tout to protect Israel could also protect surrounding countries from Israeli attack.

The title of Israel, which stands for peace and justice, has been hijacked by right wing extremists. It’s time for a change. Mr. Huffman, please work for peace.

Bryan Rosen, Trinidad

Editor:

In his article on a new lawsuit, “Taxpayers Against Genocide,” Thadeus Greenson consulted legal specialists, who predict the suit will fail. They think the plaintiffs will not be able to prove, in order to obtain standing, that the defendants, U.S. Representatives Huffman and Thompson, caused them personal injury by using their tax dollars to support genocide.

However, the trauma of being forced into becoming complicit in genocide was extensively studied in Germany after WWII. It is real. Carl Jung identified it as collective guilt, noted its pervasiveness, and the importance of treatment. Karl Jaspers differentiated between the guilt of those active in the perpetration of the genocide, and the masses of Germans who did nothing to prevent it. Both groups suffered from collective guilt, which has afflicted their children and grandchildren, as well.

The very existence of this lawsuit documents the existence of the same psychic trauma among our population, and an attempt to mitigate it by taking legal action.

Thadeus’ experts also believe that Thompson and Huffman will easily be shielded by the “speech and debate” clause in Article 1, Sec. 6 of the Constitution. But this clause was designed to protect the congressmembers’ freedom of speech, not their freedom to commit the world’s worst crime. Moreover, by supporting the genocide in Gaza, Congress is violating the Leahy Laws, which prohibit it from supplying military support to countries which commit human rights violations.

To quote Chief Justice Jackson at Nuremberg, “Civilization asks whether law is so laggard as to be utterly helpless to deal with crimes of this magnitude by criminals of this order of importance.” The criminals in this case are the U.S. government and its morally disengaged Congressmembers Huffman and Thompson.

Ellen Taylor, Petrolia