The federal complaint calls for an end to the $3.8 billion in annual military support the United States provides to Israel.
The President of the United States and two members of his Cabinet are being sued for failing to prevent and aiding and abetting “genocide” in Gaza.
federal complaint (PDF), which was filed on Monday against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, accusing them of “failing to prevent and complicity in genocide committed by the Israeli government.”
The New York civil liberties group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, filed the suit on behalf of Palestinian human rights organizations, Palestinians in Gaza and American citizens with relatives in the besieged enclave, which has faced more than a month of relentless bombing by Israel, and which receives funding and weapons from the US government.
More than 11,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its attacks on October 7. This came in the wake of an attack launched by Hamas on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
“Numerous Israeli government leaders have expressed clear genocidal intent and disseminated derogatory descriptions of Palestinians, including ‘human animals,’” the Center for Civil Rights wrote in the introduction to its complaint.
She said that these “statements of intent,” when combined with the “mass killing” of Palestinians, reveal “evidence of an unfolding crime of genocide.”
Many legal scholars, human rights groups and humanitarian workers have also described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.
“I paid Israel to kill my cousins”
“Immediately after launching Israel’s unprecedented bombing campaign in Gaza, President Biden offered ‘unwavering’ support for Israel, which he and administration officials have consistently reiterated and backed with military, financial, and political support, even as mass casualties mount along with the decline,” the Center for Constitutional Rights said. Israeli genocide discourse.
The complaint noted that the United States is Israel’s closest ally and strongest supporter, as well as its largest provider of military aid — with Israel being the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid since World War II. For this reason, the report said, the United States could have a “deterrent effect on Israeli officials who are now committing acts of genocide against the Palestinian people.”
Instead, the group said Biden, Blinken and Austin “helped advance the most serious crimes” by continuing to provide Israel with unconditional military and diplomatic support while undermining the international community’s efforts to stop Israeli bombing.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Asta Sharma Pokharel, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said: “They have a great responsibility under customary international law, and under federal law, to prevent this genocide, and to stop supporting this genocide. And every step of the way, at every opportunity, they failed. They continue to provide cover for Israel; They continued to provide material support to Israel; “Now, they intend to send more money and more weapons to Israel.”
Laila Al-Haddad, a US citizen and one of the plaintiffs in the case, has lost five relatives in Gaza since Israel launched its attacks.
“I paid Israel to kill my cousins and my aunt,” she told Al Jazeera. “There are no two ways about it.” “It was my tax dollars that did this, that sent those bombs to Israel to kill my family. And so I feel that I and all other American taxpayers have a very unique responsibility to hold our government and our elected officials accountable.
The lawsuit also calls for an end to the $3.8 billion in annual military support the United States sends to Israel.
The White House has not yet responded to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment on the case.
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