By Bob Egelko Updated Nov 16, 2023 3:59 p.m.
As President Joe Biden faced protests in the Bay Area on Thursday over U.S. support for Israel’s attacks on Gaza, a federal magistrate issued summonses to Biden and two top aides requiring responses in 60 days to a lawsuit accusing them of complicity in genocide.
Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were sued in a San Francisco federal court on Monday by a group of Palestinians, immigrants and advocates of their rights.
The suit alleges that the administration’s political and financial support of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas — a response that has killed more than 11,000 people and cut off food, water and power supplies in Gaza, according to its health officials — fits the definition of genocide under U.S. and international law: conduct “committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
The suit seeks court orders requiring Biden and his administration to “take all measures within their power” to end the bombing of Gaza, lift Israel’s siege of the territory and stop vetoing United Nations resolutions calling for a cease-fire.
In a new filing Thursday, the Palestinian rights groups asked for an injunction that would immediately halt U.S. aid to Israel’s military attacks, with a hearing scheduled Jan. 11.
Biden and his administration “have not only failed in their legal obligation to prevent this unfolding genocide, they are enabling its development through their efforts to expedite and provide massive amounts of military assistance,” attorney Maria LaHood of the Center for Constitutional Rights wrote in the court filing.
She quoted Biden’s declaration on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in January 2021: “I recommit to the simple truth that preventing future genocides remains both our moral duty and a matter of national and global importance.”
It’s not clear that courts could require such decisions on issues of foreign policy, but lawyers who filed the suit said the current situation justifies unprecedented actions.
The White House has not responded to a request for comment on the suit. On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu of Oakland ordered Biden and his aides to file a response within 60 days and scheduled an initial case-management conference between the two sides for Feb. 21.
Ryu, a magistrate appointed by the court’s judges, is assigned to the case, but either side could have her removed and replaced by a presidentially appointed federal judge.
Biden was in San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and met Wednesday with China’s president, Xi Jinping.
At a news conference after the meeting, Biden was asked about an Israeli attack that has cut off power and supplies and killed patients at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility. He backed Israel’s contention that Hamas was hiding troops and weapons at the hospital, and refused to say what evidence he was relying on.
The president did not mention a possible cease-fire, but said the violence would end only “when Hamas no longer maintains the capacity to murder and abuse and … just do horrific things to the Israelis.”
On Wednesday night, pro-Palestinian demonstrators briefly blocked cars along the Embarcadero in San Francisco. On Thursday morning, a larger group of protesters shut down the westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge for four hours before police moved in and made dozens of arrests.
Joe Garofoli contributed to this article.
Reach Bob Egelko: begelko@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @BobEgelko
Nov 16, 2023 (SFChroncle.com)
By Bob Egelko
Bob Egelko has been a reporter since June 1970. He spent 30 years with the Associated Press, covering news, politics and occasionally sports in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, and legal affairs in San Francisco from 1984 onward. He worked for the San Francisco Examiner for five months in 2000, then joined The Chronicle in November 2000.
His beat includes state and federal courts in California, the Supreme Court and the State Bar. He has a law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento and is a member of the bar. Coverage has included the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the appointment of Rose Bird to the state Supreme Court and her removal by the voters, the death penalty in California and the battles over gay rights and same-sex marriage.
