United States: A federal court in California determined that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “plausibly” constitutes genocide; however, the court rejected a case that sought to halt US military assistance to Israel because it was not within its purview.
The US district court for the northern district of California declared, “There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases. The court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter.”
The judge in the case, Jeffrey White, declared in his decision that “yet, as the ICJ [the international court of justice] has found, it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide.” The case was brought by Palestinian human rights organizations and individual Palestinians against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“This court implores defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza,” the ruling said.
In his ruling, the judge gave an explanation of why the case was outside the purview of his court: the Palestinian groups were requesting that it meddled in US foreign policy.
Although the judge’s ruling regarding the possibility of genocide was welcomed, the Palestinian organizations and their attorneys stated that they may file an appeal against the case’s dismissal.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague issued “provisional measures” on January 26 ordering Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent acts covered by the genocide convention and to ensure “with immediate effect” that its forces do not commit any of the acts covered by the convention. White made extensive reference to this case in his ruling. The ICJ was brought against Israel by South Africa.
Israel rejected the ICJ’s measures, claiming they represented a “profoundly distorted” and “barely distinguishable” view of the Gaza war.
The Israeli military’s treatment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip may very well be a genocide that violates international law, according to White, who heard testimony from experts on genocide during his Oakland hearing and declared in his decision that “the undisputed evidence before this Court comports with the finding of the ICJ.”
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