Bibo Khatib 2024

To the IRS and Elected Officials:

I am not against paying taxes to the government at all, but I am ethically and morally opposed to the amount of my tax dollars being used for wars and murdering innocent civilians across the globe.

• More than 3 million people have been killed during the U.S. wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Millions of families have been displaced during these wars over oil.

• The Pentagon is the largest user of oil in the world, burning 240,000 barrels of oil per day in 2014.

• The U.S. supports Israel with over $3 billion in military aid each year and has provided more military aid to Israel than any other country since World War II.

• The militarized Custom and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) terrorize our immigrant communities with raids which inhumanely separate families.

• The Department of Defence has transferred $4.3 billion in military equipment to local law agencies. Militarized police are deployed more in Black, brown, and indigenous neighbourhoods and often act like an occupying army.

• Each year about half of our tax dollars are used to pay for current and past wars, and for the weapons of future wars. If instead, this money was invested for humanitarian purposes, we could truly build a better and more secure world.

• Additionally, the will of the people has been subverted in our presidential elections over the years as the true winners of the popular vote have not been elected to office instead using electors in the electoral college to force losing republican candidates into office.

Despite all this misappropriation of our tax dollars to commit murder & war crimes around the globe, and our misrepresentation by officials who lost the popular vote in the elections, I have always faithfully filed my tax returns & paid my state and federal taxes for all previous years in full & on time, up until now.

Over the past 170 days (and 75+years) I have borne witness to the live streamed genocide committed by Israel, with the full backing and support of the US Government against the captive Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. I have seen with my own eyes the gruesome atrocities and MURDER of babies, toddlers and the systematic slaughter of entire families and the destruction of more than 85% of the neighborhoods, houses, schools, and hospitals in Gaza. The United States Government has been bought and corrupted by foreign agents through AIPAC and our government has gone rogue, flouting international laws to which it is a signatory and has providing legal cover for Israel through UN security council vetoes. Furthermore, our government has continued sending money and weapons to the criminal genocidal government of Israel being led by B. Netanyahu even after the International Criminal Court of Justice found that there is sufficient evidence that Israel is plausibly engaged in genocide. The U.S. has abused its position on the council to veto UN resolutions for a ceasefire 3 times since Oct 7th 2023 (and 89 times since 1945 before that) against the wishes and votes of over 120 other member countries and the other 14 security council member states.

The US and Israel stand alone on the wrong side of history against the entire world and in contradiction to established international laws and subversion of democratic principles and norms.

As a result of its actions, the US Government has isolated itself and lost all the moral equity it has tried to build over the years. The US Government is now thoroughly and without any doubt complicit in and an active supporter of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity, for which I believe (and I hope) there will be severe legal consequences in the coming years.

Due to this moral outrage and bankruptcy, I cannot in good conscience continue to financially support this criminal enterprise masquerading as our federal government. I refuse to be forced into complicity in these crimes against humanity and genocide by financially propping up this illegitimate government and the industrial military complex which is hell bent on hurtling the US people and the entire world towards obliteration and another world war.

I feel so strongly about this that I am paying 100% of my state taxes but I am refusing to pay 99% or $8,268.48 of my federal taxes owed to the IRS for 2023.

I will either set this money aside to pay at a time when it will not be used for war, or I will give this amount to programs that help rebuild Palestine and contribute to true peace and security.

I understand that the IRS may use its enforcement procedures to collect this money from me, but I hope that you will instead join me and divest from war and instead invest in building up societies and their people instead of murdering children and contributing to the destruction of humanity!

Sincerely,

Bibo Khatib