Gaza: US court to hear genocide case against Biden tomorrow

California: The first hearing of a case filed against the US administration alleging its passive involvement in Israel's genocide in Gaza is set to be heard on January 26 by a federal court here.

The case was filed by a Palestinian human rights group, Al-Haq, along with two other advocacy groups, naming US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in November last year, Al Jazeera reported.

The Israel military campaign in Gaza has taken the death toll of civilians in the enclave by over 25,000, and the armed operations still go on despite international calls for a ceasefire as well as warnings from United Nations officials and other experts of genocide.

Despite these, the Biden administration in the US continues supplying arms to Israel, bypassing Congress, as well as blocking chances of a ceasefire.

According to the director of Al-Haq, Jabarin, Israel could not go on with this without the military and political support of the US. He alleged that the US are directly complicit in the war and is helping Israel to commission a genocide.

The case filed against the three leaders accuses the US administration of failing to meet its responsibilities under international and domestic laws to prevent genocide.

The 1948 Genocide Convention, ratified by the US, states, "genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which [state parties] undertake to prevent and to punish," Al Jazeera quotes. The convention also states that complicity in genocide is also punishable.

The case argues that the US was obligated to exercise its influence on Israel to prevent the war from the time it sensed the threat of genocide. It alleged that the three defendants named not failed to uphold their country's mentioned obligation but enabled the conditions for Israel to commit genocide.

The case appealed to a US district court to declare that the US had breached its obligations to prevent genocide and requested a preliminary injunction ordering officials to take necessary measures to fulfil its legal responsibilities against the genocide.

However, the Biden administration has submitted in its December 2023 filing that the lawsuit be dismissed. It argued that the court was asked to intervene in areas which were meant to be dealt with by the political branches of the government. The filing also alleged that the court was asked to breach the constitutional separation of powers. The foreign policy is decided by the executive and not the courts; the lawsuit must be dismissed, the administration's filing argued.