The New York civil liberties group is suing Biden, and two other top government officials, for failing in his duty under international and US laws to prevent Israel committing genocide in Gaza.

 Powerful complaint

The Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) complaint alleges that Israel’s actions, including “mass killings,” the targeting of civilian infrastructure and forced expulsions, amount to genocide. The CCR said that the 1948 international convention against genocide requires the US and other countries to use their power and influence to stop the killing.

“As Israel’s closest ally and strongest supporter, being its biggest provider of military assistance by a large margin and with Israel being the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War II, the United States has the means available to have a deterrent effect on Israeli officials now pursuing genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” the complaint argues.

The lawsuit, as reported by the Guardian, and other news outlets, filed in federal court in California, asks the court to bar the US from providing weapons, money, and diplomatic support to Israel.

It also seeks a declaration that the president, the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, are required “to take all measures within their power to prevent Israel’s commission of genocidal acts against the Palestinian people of Gaza.” These include pressing Israel to end the bombing of Gaza, to lift its siege of the territory and to prevent the forcible expulsion of Palestinians.

The CCR, which won a landmark case in the US Supreme Court in 2004 establishing the rights of prisoners held by the US military at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, said that the Hamas cross-border attack on October 7, does not provide a legal justification for the scale of Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 12,000 Palestinians, including 6,600 children, and displaced 1.5 million people.

In an interview with Democracy Now! on November 16, Katherine Gallagher, senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, one of the lawyers who brought the case, explained the aim of the suit.

“We filed this case against President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of State [sic] Austin with two claims. One is that they have absolutely and completely failed in their duty under international law and U.S. law to take all measures possible to prevent the unfolding genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza. The United States is a signatory to the Genocide Convention. And in recognition of the severity, that this is the crime of crimes, when it requires the specific intent to destroy a group, a national or ethnic group, in whole or in part, that is such a serious crime that states are obligated to take all measures within their control, all measures possible, from the second, from the minute they learn of the possibility of genocide, to stop that.

“We have not seen the United States do that, despite its considerable influence over Israel in the form of hundreds of billions of dollars in military aid that it’s sent over the decades and billions in the past year. Instead of using that influence to stop the killing, to stop the imposition of a total siege, denying all basic necessities to 2.2 million people in the enclosed space of Gaza, they have rushed weapons. They have given unconditional political support. Up until yesterday, when we saw a [United Nations] Security Council resolution not yet call for a complete ceasefire, the United States had blocked all measures at the international level. So, we are bringing the first claim for its failure to prevent the unfolding genocide.

“And the second claim is that it’s actually complicit in genocide. We lay out the case that Israel is actually committing genocide at this moment. And we are able to do so, unfortunately — it’s with no pleasure that we say this — at this early moment because of the very clear statements of intent by Prime Minister Netanyahu, by his minister of defense and other senior Israeli officials about their intentions against the entire population in Gaza.

“They have been clear that they see this, the people, the children of Gaza, as less than human, describing the population as ‘monsters’ or ‘human animals,’ and then taking away all of the basic necessities — food, fuel, water, electricity. We’ve certainly, as you just played, heard what has happened to the healthcare and medical facilities: bombed and invaded. And so, in the face of all of this, the United States, when it has continued to send weapons, to send military advisers, to rush aid and give moral and political support to Israel’s actions, we say it is aiding and abetting genocide.”

The lawsuit lists a series of actions taken by Israel that the CCR said amount to genocide against the Palestinian people. These include the scale of civilian deaths, systemic collective punishment and “deprivation of the most basic necessities of life.”

The suit said senior Israeli officers stated “the intention to destroy Palestinian life in Gaza” including Major General Ghassan Alian, who said: “Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”

The CCR quoted an international court of justice ruling that there is an obligation by states to prevent genocide by employing “all means reasonably available to them.”

“Under international law, the United States has a duty to take all measures available to it to prevent genocide,” the lawsuit said.

“Yet, defendants repeatedly refused to use their obvious and considerable leverage to set conditions or place limits on Israel’s massive bombing and total siege of Gaza. They have done so despite escalating evidence of Israeli policies directed at inflicting mass harm to the Palestinian population in Gaza, including the creation of conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction through a total siege, and even in the face of mounting deaths including of thousands of children.”

The CCR said that the US recently affirmed its understanding and agreement with obligations to prevent and punish genocide.

 New ICC investigation

In addition to the CCR suit, reports Al Jazeera, November 15, “A group of lawyers representing Palestinian victims of Israeli attacks on Gaza have filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC), arguing that Israel’s actions amount to the crime of genocide.”

Gilles Devers, a veteran French lawyer and the victims’ representative before the ICC, submitted the complaint to the prosecutor as part of a four-person delegation in the Dutch city of The Hague.

The civil society initiative could result in arrest warrants being issued against top Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“It is clear for me that there are all the criteria for the crime of genocide,” Devers told Al Jazeera.

Israel has made no attempt to hide the hallmarks of genocide, the group has argued, by cutting food and electricity to Gaza, attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure and using dehumanizing talk that likens people to “animals”.

The 1948 convention, written in the wake of the Holocaust, defines genocide as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.” The convention’s first article requires signatories, which include the US, “to prevent and to punish” genocide.

With mounting allegations of serious war crimes being committed in Gaza, Devers said governments that did not wish to be found complicit should refrain from backing Israel.

“Governments must choose which camp they are on if they support human rights or genocide. They cannot give speeches about international law and human rights and then accept Israel’s attack without doing nothing,” he said.

Israel does not recognize the ICC, but Devers said that did not render the court ineffective.

In 2021, the ICC ruled that it has authority over grave crimes committed in occupied Palestinian territories, including potential war crimes committed by any party on the ground.

The initiative led by Devers is one of a number of lawsuits presented to the ICC in the past weeks.

 Other suits

On November 9, three Palestinian human rights groups urged the body to investigate Israel for “apartheid” as well as “genocide” and issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

#JusticeForGaza, another initiative, aims to bring together diverse voices from international civil society, political leaders, and representatives to petition the court. Prominent European politicians who have advocated for Palestinian rights, including Spain’s Ione Belarra and Britain’s Jeremy Corbyn, are among the more than 80 signatories of that petition.

Devers said the latest bombing of Gaza amounted to the most relevant crimes that the court had seen in decades.

“If the ICC does nothing, then it’s the end of the ICC,” he said. “We have sufficient proof for a mandate of arrest against Mr. Netanyahu,” Devers said.

Malik Miah

---