What is the #DropTheGenocide20 Pledge? 

The #DroptheGenocide20 Pledge is a baseline accountability commitment pledging to not hire, consult, or otherwise promote top Biden White House officials who were responsible for promoting, lying about, and covering up the Gaza genocide.

The purpose of the list is to demand these officials be removed from future Democratic administrations, as well as think tanks and academic and liberal spaces.

Why is this important? 

The culture of Bipartisan Elite Immunity is what drives US war crimes and support for war crimes. From the Vietnam War to post-9/11 torture to the Iraq War, elite war criminality never receives any meaningful sanction from either party. It is treated as a mere policy disagreement among friends. 

This dynamic is a key reason Biden officials knew they could arm, defend, and cover up the genocide in Gaza for 15 months, and simply move back into liberal spaces, nonprofits, and future governments. As we see those who backed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza under Biden get high-status jobs at major think tanks, media outlets, colleges, and consulting firms, we see this dynamic playing out before our very eyes.

This is unacceptable.  

This is a bare-minimum commitment—and deliberately limited in scope. It is designed to start the process of accountability. It is not in and of itself sufficient. 

But it’s a start. 

The Pledge:

• Whereas it is consensus in the human rights and humanitarian world, as well as the position of 75 percent of Democratic voters, that Israel committed genocide in Gaza with full US support. 

• Whereas the Biden administration armed, funded, and lied to cover up a genocide in Gaza.

• Whereas those most responsible for doing so bear a proportionate amount of the responsibility. 

• Whereas top Biden officials backed genocide in Gaza because they knew a Cycle Of Elite Immunity would protect them from accountability.

• Whereas US law (Section §620I, Leahy Laws, among others) required the president to end arms shipments to countries the State Department knows are committing war crimes, and the State Department actively covered up these findings.

• Whereas most of those responsible for the Gaza genocide have pivoted to prestigious jobs in Democratic, academic, liberal think tank, NGO, media, and “humanitarian” spaces. 

• Whereas breaking this Cycle Of Elite Immunity is necessary for any healthy or just society.

We therefore pledge to oppose any efforts to grant members of the Genocide20 institutional or political power that positions them to continue to perpetrate harm.

Limitations: 

1. This list is not meant as a substitute for full accountability. Clearly, being removed from Democratic politics is not sufficient accountability for the crimes in question, but it’s a useful first step. 

2. There are, of course, far more than 20 people in US government responsible for the US-backed genocide in Gaza. But narrowing the list to the most responsible, while inherently arbitrary, is a necessary constraint to give the campaign focus.