A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by Palestinian Americans who sought to force the White House to withdraw support for Israel’s bombing of Gaza, as widely expected under constitutional precedent that only the political branches of the US government could determine foreign policy. policy.
But, unexpectedly, US District Judge Jeffrey White indicated that he would have preferred to have issued the order if it was not limited by the Constitution and asked the Biden administration to “consider the results of its indiscriminate support” of Israel.
The decision came five days after a hearing in Oakland, California, in which Judge White allowed the head of a humanitarian group, a medical intern and three Palestinian Americans with relatives in Gaza to tell the court that their loved ones were being slaughtered. They claimed that the US government has committed genocide by supporting Israel’s military response to the October 7 Hamas attacks.
“President Biden could, with one phone call, put an end to this,” said Laila el-Haddad., a Palestinian activist and author who lives in Maryland, told the judge. She said Israeli attacks had killed at least 88 members of her extended family in Gaza. “My family is being murdered on my own dime.”
Judge White, who last week described the testimony as “devastating,” wrote that the evidence and testimony “indicate that the ongoing military siege of Gaza is intended to wipe out an entire people.”
But, he added, “there are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is out of reach in court.”
This, he wrote, was such a case: “It is the duty of every individual to confront the current siege in Gaza, but it is also the duty of this Court to remain within the bounds and limits of its jurisdiction.”
Legal precedent limits judicial power over US presidents in foreign policy decisions, and administration lawyers had argued that, regardless of the testimony on Gaza, the White House and Congress have the constitutional prerogative to set policy on Israel.
But in a notable aside, Judge White, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, urged President Biden to reconsider the U.S. military siege policy, writing that “it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they would challenge the ruling, but were heartened by the judge’s comments.
“While we are disappointed by the outcome, we are very pleased that the court recognized that it is plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” said Marc Van Der Hout, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, “and that the United States supports that genocide.” .
Kathryn Gallagher of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, noted that the court “used extremely strong language.”
“We hope the executive will heed the court’s call,” he said, “as the situation in Gaza continues to be tragic.”
On October 7, Hamas launched a terrorist attack against Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. In the months since, Israel has bombed the Palestinian enclave of Gaza in an attempt to crush Hamas, which rules the region. Local health officials in Gaza say more than 25,000 people have been killed there, including thousands of children, and that most of the 2.2 million people who live there have been displaced and are facing starvation.
The unusual legal action in California was filed Nov. 13 by Palestinian humanitarian groups and eight individual advocates. It accused President Biden, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III of violating federal common law by defying customary international law that binds the U.S. to the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The lawsuit asked Judge White to order the president and his administration to “take all steps within their powers” to stop “Israel’s commission of genocidal acts against the Palestinian people of Gaza.” He also sought orders to freeze aid to Israel and prevent the White House from “obstructing efforts by the international community, including the United Nations, to implement a ceasefire.”
The hearing earlier this month took place hours after the United Nations’ top judicial body ordered Israel to prevent genocidal actions by its forces, but stopped short of calling for an end to the war in Gaza.
The International Court of Justice responded to South Africa’s accusations, which claimed that Israel’s military response was designed to deny the Palestinians their right to exist.
