Sunday, November 19, 2023

Palestinians File Emergency Motion to Block US Aid for Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

A federal lawsuit accuses Biden, Blinken and Austin of failure to prevent genocide and complicity in genocide.


November 19, 2023
Source: TruthOut




On November 16, two Palestinian human rights organizations, three Palestinians and five Palestinian Americans brought an emergency motion in United States federal court to immediately force President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to stop providing additional weapons, money, and military and diplomatic support to Israel, which is committing genocide in Gaza.

“Our Palestinian clients are asking the court to urgently order Biden, Blinken and Austin to stop supporting Israel’s genocide,” said Maria LaHood, Deputy Legal Director of Center for Constitutional Rights which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Palestinians, in an interview with Truthout. “Israeli officials stated their intent to eliminate everything in Gaza, and then proceeded to carpet-bomb it, killing more than 11,000 people, including nearly 5,000 children thus far — many more are missing, buried under rubble, crushed and suffocating before they die.”

LaHood also pointed to Israel’s ongoing siege in which Palestinians in Gaza remain cut off from food, water and electricity. “Those still alive are starving and drinking contaminated water, fearing being bombed. Yet the U.S. continues to expedite weapons and other support, in defiance of its international law obligation to prevent genocide, not fuel it,” LaHood told Truthout. “Our clients, who have already collectively lost more than 116 of their family members, are asking the court to provide preliminary relief so they do not suffer even more irreparable harm.”

The motion for preliminary injunction is grounded in U.S. officials’ legal duty to prevent — not exacerbate — Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The motion says that an immediate court order is necessary to protect the plaintiffs from “irreparable harm.” Some of the plaintiffs face a grave risk of death from Israel’s war on Gaza.
Palestinians Sue Biden, Blinken and Austin

The emergency motion that the group of Palestinians filed on November 16 came days after the same group of Palestinian plaintiffs sued Biden, Blinken and Austin in the U.S. District Court of Northern California for failure to prevent genocide and complicity in genocide.

The complaint — which the group filed on November 13, after more than five weeks of Israel’s unrelenting slaughter in Gaza — alleges violations of the Genocide Convention, the Genocide Convention Implementation Act and customary international law which forbids genocide.


The lawsuit charges that defendants Biden, Blinken and Austin transferred a significant amount of weapons and military equipment to Israel.

Plaintiffs include Defense for Children International – Palestine; Al-Haq; three Palestinian individuals who reside in Gaza and five Palestinian Americans who have family in Gaza.

“To be honest, it’s difficult to revisit all the scenes of the past weeks. They open a door to hell when I recall them,” said Plaintiff Dr. Omar Al-Najjar, an intern physician at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, Gaza. “I’ve lost five relatives, treated too many children who are the sole survivors of their families, received the bodies of my fellow medical students and their families, and seen the hospital turn into a shelter for tens of thousands of people as we all run out of fuel, electricity, food and water. The U.S. has to stop this genocide. Everyone in the world has to stop this.”

Team Biden continues to unequivocally and unconditionally enable Israel’s genocide in Gaza. But Biden, Blinken and Austin are finally being called to account in court — as well as in the streets around the world — for their unwavering and illegal support of Israeli genocide.

The U.S. sends $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to Israel, more than it provides to any other country. Israel has special access to U.S. military stockpiles, likely worth up to $4.4 billion. The U.S. has long provided political and diplomatic cover to Israel by blocking resolutions in the United Nations Security Council condemning Israel’s human rights violations, and undermining efforts to hold Israel accountable in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza

Article II of the Genocide Convention defines genocide as specific acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The acts include: 1.) killing members of the group; 2.) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; and 3.) deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

As of November 10, Israeli occupying forces had killed more than 11,078 Palestinians in Gaza, 4,506 of whom were children. Israeli forces had caused serious bodily and mental harm by injuring 27,490 people in Gaza. About 2,700 more, including approximately 1,500 children, were missing. Israel also forced the displacement of 1.5 million people, half the population of Gaza.

For the past five weeks, the Israeli government has intensified its preexisting and already severe blockade of Gaza, with a “total siege” by further restricting the entry into Gaza of basic necessities, including food, water, medicine and fuel, and by cutting off electricity.

In his declaration in support of the motion for preliminary injunction, Professor William Schabas, a leading expert on genocide who is also Jewish, wrote that the “avowed policy of depriving Gaza of water, food, medicine and electricity, bearing in mind the rather desperate economic situation in the territory prior to the conflict and the fact that the borders are sealed, leaving the people of Gaza with nowhere to go, will inexorably lead to their physical destruction. If the siege and blockade continue, there can be no other outcome.”


Israel, as an occupying power, cannot claim self-defense against the people it occupies, the lawsuit maintains.

Public statements by Israeli leaders constitute evidence of an “intent to destroy, in whole or in part” a “national group.” Palestinians in Gaza constitute a substantial part of the Palestinian nation.

Senior Israeli officials and politicians have used dehumanizing rhetoric to describe Palestinians in Gaza, calling them “human animals” and “children of darkness,” and refusing to distinguish between civilians and combatants, declaring that the whole population of Gaza is responsible for the Hamas-led October 7 attack.

The New York Times reported that, “Calls for Gaza to be ‘flattened,’ ‘erased’ or ‘destroyed’ had been mentioned about 18,000 times since Oct. 7 in Hebrew posts on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, said FakeReporter, an Israeli group that monitors disinformation and hate speech.”
Biden, Blinken and Austin Violated Legal Duty to Prevent Genocide

Article I of the Genocide Convention imposes a duty on all States Parties, which include Israel and the U.S. who have ratified the treaty, to prevent genocide. The International Court of Justice said in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro that “a State’s obligation to prevent, and the corresponding duty to act, arise at the instant that the State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights’s motion for preliminary injunction charges that, “Defendants have been on notice of the risk of genocide since at least October 9, if not already on October 7, through the public and widely circulated statements and actions by Israeli officials with whom they were in close, regular contact and consultation, as well as by warnings of indicators of genocide from United Nations officials and other sources that have only increased since then.”

Reports and images of Israel’s assault on the Palestinians in Gaza accompanied by words and actions of Israeli leaders revealing the intention to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians have been ubiquitous.

Yet instead of fulfilling their legal duty to prevent the unfolding genocide, Biden, Blinken and Austin poured gasoline on the fire by sending Israel vast amounts of weaponry, money and advisory support. On October 18, the U.S. vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have called for a ceasefire and urged Israel to rescind its order to 1.1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza to leave their homes and move to southern Gaza.
Biden, Blinken and Austin Are Complicit in Israel’s Genocide

Complicity to commit genocide can only occur if there is a punishable act of genocide by another state or persons. The accomplice enables or facilitates the crime but doesn’t have to share the specific intent to commit genocide. A defendant may be liable for genocide if he knowingly provides assistance, encouragement or moral support for the crime.

Furnishing arms and ammunition and operational support and advice that armed forces use to commit atrocities can constitute aiding and abetting if the defendant knew his actions would assist the international law violation.

The lawsuit charges that defendants Biden, Blinken and Austin transferred a significant amount of weapons and military equipment to Israel. They asked Congress to appropriate $14.1 billion in additional military assistance to Israel. Blinken authorized a $320 million transfer of military equipment to an Israeli manufacturer of kits for precision bombs.

U.S. leaders are intimately involved in day-to-day assistance to Israel as it bombards Gaza. On October 30, Defense Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh stated that Defense Department and other officials, “all the way up to the president have certainly informed and at least guided some of what the Israelis are doing on the ground in their ground operation,” the complaint says.

U.S. officials refuse to place any limitations on Israel’s use of U.S.-furnished weaponry to carry out its genocidal assault on the Palestinians in Gaza. On November 7, Singh admitted that “we don’t put conditions on weapons that … we’re sending or that Israel is using.”

Further, Biden continues to refuse to call for a ceasefire. On November 9, when asked at a press briefing about the chances of a ceasefire, he replied, “None. No possibility.”

The complaint states, “As Israel’s closest ally and strongest supporter, being its biggest provider of military assistance by a large margin and with Israel being the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II, the United States has the means available to have a deterrent effect on Israeli officials now pursuing genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Lawsuit Seeks Declaratory and Injunctive Relief

In their lawsuit, the Palestinian plaintiffs are asking the court to declare that defendants Biden, Blinken and Austin violated their duty under customary international law, as part of federal common law:to take all measures within their power to prevent Israel from committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza;
that prohibits their complicity in genocide, by knowingly continuing to provide assistance that enables and facilitates Israel’s commission of genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The plaintiffs are also seeking an injunction ordering defendants to take all measures within their power to prevent Israel’s commission of genocidal acts against the Palestinians in Gaza, including but not limited to ordering defendants to exert influence over Israel to:end its bombing of the Palestinian people of Gaza, resulting in mass killing and serious injury;
lift the siege on Gaza and allow all electricity, fuel, food, water and humanitarian aid into Gaza; and
prevent the “evacuation” or forcible transfer and expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and ensure freedom of movement.

Finally, plaintiffs are asking the court to issue an injunction to prohibit defendants from:providing, facilitating, or coordinating military assistance and financing to Israel, including sales, transfer or delivery of weapons and arms to Israel, and providing military equipment and personnel, advancing Israel’s commission of genocidal acts;
obstructing attempts by the international community, including at the UN, to implement a ceasefire and lift the siege on Gaza.

The lawsuit says that even the crimes committed by the military wing of Hamas on October 7 that killed approximately 1,200 Israelis, including many civilians, and kidnapped 240 others, cannot legally justify the targeting of an entire population and collective punishment the Israeli government has meted out, let alone genocide.

Israel, as an occupying power, cannot claim self-defense against the people it occupies, the lawsuit maintains. Moreover, the intent to commit genocide repeatedly expressed by Israeli officials belies any claim to self-defense.

“Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which sets the confines for the invocation and use of self-defense by States, is inapplicable when the threat originates from a territory over which Israel exercises control,” the lawsuit states, citing the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion in “Legal Consequences of Construction of a Wall in Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Congress is considering the request by Biden, Blinken and Austin to authorize more than $14 billion in additional military assistance to Israel. On November 3, the National Lawyers Guild, Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal sent a letter to congressmembers alerting them that they could face legal liability for aiding, abetting, inciting or conspiring to commit genocide by appropriating funds to support Israel’s ongoing genocide.

A hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction is set for January 11, 2024, in the Oakland, California, courtroom of Judge Donna M. Ryu.

Why Israel Attacks Hospitals

November 19, 2023
Z Article
Source: Originally published by Z.
 Feel free to share widely.

Medics transport an injured Palestinian child into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike on October 11, 2023, as raging battles between Israel and the Hamas movement continued for the fifth consecutive day. Medical supplies, including oxygen, were running low at Gaza's overwhelmed Al-Shifa hospital as the death toll from five days of ferocious fighting between Hamas and Israel rose sharply on October 11 with Israel keeping up its bombardment of Gaza after recovering the dead from the last communities near the border where Palestinian militants had been holed up. Photo by Atia Darwish apaimages



Israeli forces have occupied the al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, since November 15, 2023, based on false claims that the hospital is situated above an underground Hamas command center. According to Muhammed Abu Salmiya, the Director of Al-Shifa, around 7,000 individuals, including patients, medical staff, and civilians seeking refuge, are stranded in the hospital. The facility is currently isolated, lacking access to water, electricity, and communication services. Israeli forces have surrounded the hospital with tanks, bulldozers, and snipers for over a week. They have raided the premises at least three times. During these incidents, staff and civilians have been stripped naked, subjected to interrogations, and detained. The whereabouts of many Palestinians remain unknown, and medical equipment has been destroyed. Doctors at al-Shifa have reported that Israeli soldiers took several deceased patients’ bodies to an undisclosed location. As per the Palestinian Ministry of Health, some 40 patients, including three premature babies, have died at the hospital since November 11, 2023.

Al-Shifa isn’t new to the horrors of Zionism. As a hospital in the Gaza Strip, it has witnessed the humans that have been destroyed by Israel’s settler-colonial war-mongering. During Operation Cast Lead (2008-9), which resulted in more than 1,400 Palestinians being killed in Gaza, John Ging – then Director of Operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) – described al-Shifa hospital thus: “(It) is the place of course where you see the most horrific human consequences of this conflict. Among the tragic cases that I saw were a child, six years of age, little or no brain activity, people don’t have much hope for her survival; multiple amputee – another little girl; and a pregnant woman who’d lost a leg”. The continuity of Palestinian suffering underscores the fact that Israel’s targeting of al-Shifa isn’t a one-off incident. It is a core component of its policy of inflicting maximum pain on Palestinians.

On October 18, 2023, the Israeli army bombed the Anglican-run al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, killing between 500-1000 people. Thousands of individuals had sought shelter from the Israeli bombardment in the hospital, and a significant number of them were residing in the hospital courtyard where the strike occurred. The same hospital had been targeted by Israel the previous weekend, resulting in injuries to four people and forcing thousands to evacuate. A day before the attack, a video – recorded by a person who was killed by Israeli bombing – showed kids playing at al-Ahli outside and collecting garbage into plastic bags. This heart-wrenching attack on al-Ahli hospital isn’t just reflective of the genocidal intensity of the 2023 war being waged by Israel on Gaza. On the contrary, hospitals have been regularly targeted by Israel.

Between July 21 and 22, 2014, al-Aqsa Hospital, a government-run facility in the Gaza Strip with a capacity of 190 beds, faced multiple military strikes by the Israeli forces. The attacks occurred while the hospital was fully operational, accommodating hundreds of civilians seeking refuge on its premises. As a result of the strikes, three individuals lost their lives, 70 people were injured (including 11 medical staff), and various buildings, equipment, and ambulances were either destroyed or damaged. Dr. Medhat Abbas, director of al-Aqsa Hospital, said that Israel’s claim about Hamas using the hospital “was a big lie”. “I challenge anyone in the international community to prove that. There are no weapons in our hospital…We are ready for any inspection. Any international organization can come and make sure we have nothing in our hospital.” “They are professional liars and killers.” Dr. Abbas added that the hospital wanted to evacuate its remaining patients but found no safe place to take them to. “No hospitals are safe in Gaza. If we move them, there is no safe hospital in Gaza,” he remarked, highlighting the systematicity of Israeli attacks on Gaza’s hospitals. Basman Elashi, executive director of the Al Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital in Gaza that was shelled by Israel, commented: “We have no place to hide. No place for the children and the women. They are inhumane. They are acting like an animal; they are targeting every home and family in Gaza”. “In the attack, we not only lost a critical lifeline for our patients, but also an investment of 30 years. About $15 million (Dh55.1m) worth of equipment, gone in seconds.”

The Israeli attacks on Gaza’s hospitals are part of the wider colonial tradition of indiscriminate, genocidal warfare. In the colonized territory, all civilians are transformed into potential human shields by the mere fact of their existence. The colonizer/colonized binary holds sway over the civilian/combatant distinction. Insofar as colonialism is a “civilizing mission,” the colonized are framed as radically inferior to the colonizers. This vast chasm means that colonial violence is rarely considered as sufficient; the level of disproportionality exists as an ever-receding limit that is never reached. The ultimate cause of “humanity” translates into the “necessary” sacrifice of the colonized population. This moral arithmetic attaches different price tags to different humans. Some are ensconced as the representatives and beneficiaries of “humanity,” while others are rendered as disposable raw materials for the continued working of humanity’s engine.

During Italy’s 1935–1936 invasion of Ethiopia, 22 cases of Italian aerial bombardment of Red Cross units were recorded. The fascist regime justified its attack on medical facilities by portraying it as a retaliation against the Ethiopian army’s misuse of the Red Cross emblem and field hospitals as shields. According to the Italians, the Ethiopian forces had violated international law, specifically the principle of distinction, by using medical facilities for the purpose of hiding. It was the racial cunning of Ethiopians that explained their ignorance of international humanitarian law. In this way, the deaths caused by Italy’s brutal bombing campaigns were blamed upon the Ethiopians’ failure to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. Commenting upon the racial framing of the issue, Nicola Perugini and Neve Gordon note: “The trope of the treacherous and brutal armed resistance fighters that ignore the laws of war alongside the image of the honest, law abiding brave fascist were crucial elements in the media coverage of Ethiopia’s conquest.”

Ethiopians’ decision to shield behind the Red Cross wasn’t an extension of their general primitivism. On the contrary, it reflected the “desperate actions of defenseless people who tried to protect themselves as best they could”. The Italian army was using “C 500-T bombs…loaded with yperite (a “mustard” gas), the most deadly poison available. Yperite is corrosive; its vapors, produced by an explosion, are lethal. The drops penetrate under the skin, producing blistering, internal lesions and death.” In the words of Alberto Sbacchi, “The Ethiopians had no air force with which to retaliate, or any means to protect themselves against the “rain of death,” except for a few thousand old gas masks, useless against yperite and arsine, while the Italians were well stocked, with eighty-four thousand gas masks.”

The Ethiopian case has many similarities with the Palestinian case. In order to hide its colonial savagery, Italy focused on the malignant actions of uncivilized Ethiopians who had violated international law by shielding behind the Red Cross emblem. Today, the settler-colonial state of Israel is rehashing the same colonial discourse. Israeli Major General Ghassan Alian has openly talked about creating uninhabitable conditions for Gaza’s animal-like inhabitants: “Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water, there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell”. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reiterated: “We are fighting animals.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has elaborated the dualistic underpinnings of the Zionist narrative, “This is a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle”. All of these statements portray the situation in Gaza as a self-inflicted wound caused by the backwardness of the Palestinians. In opposition to this, we have to recognize that the current genocide in Gaza is not an effect of Hamas’ supposed Islamist barbarism. Rather, it is a continuation of Israel’s colonial project, against which Palestinians have the right to deploy any method of resistance.

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