{"id":31510,"date":"2024-02-05T12:24:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T20:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=31510"},"modified":"2024-02-05T12:24:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T20:24:17","slug":"after-historic-ruling-lawyers-vow-to-keep-fighting-biden-over-complicity-in-gaza-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/02\/05\/after-historic-ruling-lawyers-vow-to-keep-fighting-biden-over-complicity-in-gaza-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"AFTER HISTORIC RULING, LAWYERS VOW TO KEEP FIGHTING BIDEN OVER COMPLICITY IN GAZA GENOCIDE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/a>A Palestine solidarity protester carries a sign that reads \u201cGenocide Joe has got 2 go,\u201d while marching over the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City on Dec. 4, 2023.\u00a0Photo: Michael Nigro\/Pacific Press\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Biden but implored his administration to reconsider its \u201cunflagging support\u201d for Israel\u2019s war on Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alice Speri<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

February 1 2024, 2:59 p.m. (theintercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A FEDERAL JUDGE<\/strong> declared on Wednesday that Israel is plausibly engaging in genocide in Gaza and implored the Biden administration to reconsider its \u201cunflagging support\u201d for Israel\u2019s attacks on Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comments came in a ruling in response to a lawsuit<\/a> that accused President Joe Biden and senior administration officials of complicity in and failure to prevent Israel\u2019s genocidal acts, as required by both international and U.S. law. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal organization, filed the lawsuit<\/a> on behalf of two Palestinian human rights organizations and Palestinians in Gaza and in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge, Jeffrey S. White of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, dismissed the lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds \u2014citing legal doctrine that prevents the judiciary from interfering in matters of foreign policy. But his strong-worded statement is unprecedented, as was his unusual decision to allow more than three hours of testimony from Palestinian plaintiffs during a powerful hearing<\/a> last week, including a doctor calling into court from a Gaza hospital hallway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that hearing, which took place <\/a>in Oakland just hours after the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled<\/a> that Israel had plausibly engaged in genocide in Gaza, White described the case as the \u201cmost difficult\u201d of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is every individual\u2019s obligation to confront the current siege in Gaza, but it [is] also this Court\u2019s obligation to remain within the metes and bounds of its jurisdictional scope,\u201d he wrote in his decisionOpens in a new tab<\/a> to dismiss the case. \u201cThere are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the Court. This is one of those cases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Justice Department attorneys had asked the judge to dismiss the case on a technicality, citing the jurisdictional question, but did not challenge the suit on its merits. In court last week, government lawyers did not cross-examine witnesses, with the exception of a scholar of the Holocaust who testified that Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza amounted to genocide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a press briefing on Thursday afternoon, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller declined to comment on the lawsuit and the judge\u2019s ruling but said that \u201cit remains our conclusion that the allegations of genocide are unfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad Parker, a senior adviser at Defense for Children International Palestine, one of the two organizational plaintiffs in the case, said that the decision was \u201cdisappointing,\u201d but that the judge\u2019s findings \u2014 and the fact that such a hearing could take place in a U.S. courtroom in the first place \u2014 were of \u201csignificant, historic meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe know that U.S. weapons are integral in the genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know that U.S. weapons are integral in the genocide that we\u2019re documenting as a Palestinian human rights organization,\u201d Parker told The Intercept. \u201cBut similar to the historic ICJ decision and the increasing recognition that what Israel is carrying out is a genocide and the U.S. is complicit in those genocidal acts, I think the strong language from a U.S. federal court judge increasingly works to isolate Israel\u2019s actions and also bring pressure on the Biden administration to change course.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear what President Biden\u2019s complicity is in the destruction of Palestinian life,\u201d Parker added. \u201cAnd we\u2019re committed to doing everything that we can to end that complicity, and ultimately end the genocide.\u201d Read Our Complete CoverageIsrael\u2019s War on Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Steps <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Attorneys for the plaintiffs responded to the ruling by stressing the judge\u2019s \u201chistoric rebukeOpens in a new tab<\/a>\u201d of U.S. government support for Israeli crimes. They also disputed the court\u2019s jurisdictional finding, indicating an argument for a potential appeal or request for the case to be reconsidered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahmed Abofoul, a Palestinian attorney at Al Haq, the second organizational plaintiff, testified in court last week about the killing of more than 80 of his relatives since the beginning of the war. During a press conference on Thursday, he said that the dismissal on a technicality \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean that this was not a victory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe judge acknowledged that genocide is being committed,\u201d Abpfoul said, \u201cand basically what he was saying is just that his hands are tied.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katherine Gallagher, a senior attorney at CCR and\u00a0lead counsel on the case<\/a>, said, \u201cThe legal conclusions are there: The U.S. is clearly on notice that its actions are in violation of both international and domestic law.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In his opinion, White cited an earlier suitOpens in a new tab<\/a>, also brought by CCR, against Caterpillar, the manufacturer that provided the bulldozer used by an Israeli soldier to kill American peace activist Rachel Corrie<\/a> in Gaza in 2003. That case was also dismissed on the basis that policy decisions are exempt from judicial review, with an appeals court upholding the dismissal. CCR attorneys argued that their case against the Biden administration is different, pledging to explore all legal avenues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a legal distinction,\u201d Gallagher said during the event on Thursday. The Biden administration\u2019s support for the war in Gaza is more than just \u201crubber-stamping or approving the use of foreign military financing for a direct commercial sale,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have the president of the United States knowing that there is an ongoing genocide and continuing to provide \u2018unflagging support\u2019 to Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Gallagher implied that the lawsuit against Caterpillar could provide a road map for future legal action. \u201cCompanies are now on notice because of the ICJ judgment and the U.S. court judgment if they weren\u2019t before, which they should have been. Those companies also have obligations to not further the genocide by continuing to sell and supply weapons that are being used to kill Palestinians every day.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Palestine solidarity protester carries a sign that reads \u201cGenocide Joe has got 2 go,\u201d while marching over the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City on Dec. 4, 2023.\u00a0Photo: Michael Nigro\/Pacific Press\/LightRocket via Getty Images A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Biden but implored his administration to reconsider its… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31511,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31510\/revisions\/31511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}