JTA — A group of Northern California residents has filed a class-action lawsuit against their congressional representatives, Democrats Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, accusing them of causing harm to local communities and to Palestinians in Gaza by voting to send billions in US military aid to Israel.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court, claims the lawmakers caused “moral and emotional/psychic injury” to taxpayers by voting for aid that, the plaintiffs allege, contributes to genocide in Gaza. Both Israel and the Biden administration reject that Israel is committing genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

The lawsuit is the latest example of how debates over Israel and Gaza have moved to the courts since the outbreak of the war following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. Several months ago, federal courts dismissed a lawsuit by pro-Palestinian groups, also filed in the Bay Area, accusing the Biden administration of complicity in a genocide. A federal appeals court panel confirmed a ruling by a lower court that the judiciary cannot intervene to change the government’s foreign policy.

Survivors of the Oct. 7 attack and Jewish groups have filed a series of suits over the attack against pro-Palestinian nonprofits, the United Nations’ Palestinian aid agency UNRWA and foreign governments allied........

© The Times of Israel