By Tata Mbunwe
A coalition of Palestinian human rights organizations, alongside Gaza residents and US citizens with family ties to Gaza, has filed a lawsuit against US President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
The 89-page lawsuit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights in a California Federal District Court, accuses the Biden administration of allegedly aiding an ongoing Israeli ‘genocide’ in Gaza.
The plaintiffs are seeking judicial intervention to halt further military, financial, or diplomatic support from the US government to Israel.
“Under international law, the United States has a duty to take all measures available to it to prevent a genocide. Yet, Defendants have repeatedly refused to use their obvious and considerable influence to set conditions or place limits on Israel’s massive bombing and total siege of Gaza,” the lawsuit reads.
It furthers that the Biden administration has opposed “a life-saving cease-fire and lifting of the siege, even vetoing United Nations measures calling for a ceasefire.”
“Instead, their actions to fund, arm, and endorse Israel’s mass and devastating bombing campaign and total siege of the Palestinians in Gaza constitutes a failure to prevent an unfolding genocide and complicity in its development.”
The Biden administration’s opposition to a life-saving cease-fire and the lifting of the siege, including the vetoing of United Nations measures advocating for a ceasefire, forms the crux of the lawsuit.
The document argues that the US government’s actions, such as funding, arming, and endorsing Israel’s bombing campaigns, amount to complicity in the development of an unfolding ‘genocide’.
The United States currently provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military support, a factor attributed to making the Israeli military one of the most formidable forces in the Middle East.
The lawsuit emphasizes the US’s role as Israel’s closest ally, its strongest supporter, and the largest provider of military assistance, with Israel being the leading cumulative recipient of US foreign aid since World War II.
At the start of the war in Gaza, President Biden promised America’s unflinching support to Israel in the offensive, which has left more than 11,200 people dead since October 7.
Despite global calls for a ceasefire and the staggering human and material casualties in Gaza, the US and its Western allies vetoed a UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending the hostilities.
Mimi Mefo Info
