US court hears civil case accusing Biden of ‘complicity’ in Gaza ‘genocide’

A civil case accusing United States President Joe Biden and other senior US officials of being complicit in Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza has begun at a federal court in California.

Lawyers representing Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, attended Friday’s proceedings along with the plaintiffs who accuse them of “failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide”.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a US civil liberties group, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the human rights organisation, Defence for Children – Palestine; Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group based in the occupied West Bank; and eight Palestinians and US citizens with relatives in Gaza.

During Friday’s hearing, the court heard from lawyers, activists and organisers, including doctors in Gaza, about the situation that Palestinians have been facing for nearly four months.

Since the war began on October 7, more than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza following a Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,100 people there.

The CCR complaint was first filed in November last year and said Biden, Blinken and Austin “have not only been failing to uphold the country’s obligation to prevent a genocide but have enabled the conditions for its development by providing unconditional military and diplomatic support [to Israel]”.

The CCR is asking the court to “declare that defendants have violated their duty under customary international law, as part of federal common law, to take all measures within their power to prevent Israel from committing genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza”.

The group is also calling for the US to use its influence over Israel to end the hostilities against Palestinians in Gaza.