Israel’s campaign in Gaza ‘plausibly’ amounts to genocide, US court finds

Julian Borger

 Global affairs editor

THE GUARDIAN
Thu, February 1, 2024 

An Israeli tank moves along the border with northern Gaza.Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters


A federal court in California has ruled that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “plausibly” amounts to genocide, but dismissed a case aimed at stopping US military support for Israel as being outside the court’s jurisdiction.

“There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases,” the US district court in the northern district of California ruled. “The court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter.

Related: More than one-third of Americans believe Israel is committing genocide, poll shows

“Yet, as the ICJ [the international court of justice] has found, it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide,” the judge in the case, Jeffrey White, said in his ruling, in a case brought by Palestinian human rights groups and individual Palestinians against President Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, and Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary.

“This court implores defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza,” the ruling said.

The judge explained his decision that the matter lay outside the jurisdiction of his court, because the Palestinian groups were asking it to interfere with US foreign policy.

“Because any determination to challenge the decision of the executive branch of government on support of Israel is fraught with serious political questions, the claims presented by plaintiffs here lie outside the court’s limited jurisdiction,” White said.

The Palestinian groups and their lawyers said they might appeal against the dismissal of the case, but welcomed the judge’s judgment on the potential for genocide.

“While we strongly disagree with the court’s ultimate jurisdictional ruling, we urge the Biden administration to heed the judge’s call to examine and end its deadly course of action,” said Katherine Gallagher, the senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who argued the case before the court.

Related: How South Africa’s genocide case against Israel played out in The Hague

In his ruling, White referred extensively the genocide case brought against Israel by South Africa in the ICJ in The Hague, which issued “provisional measures” on 26 January calling on 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.

Israel rejected the ICJ measures as representing a “profoundly distorted” view of the Gaza war that was “barely distinguishable” from that of Hamas.

In his Oakland hearing, White heard evidence from experts on genocide and said in his ruling “the undisputed evidence before this Court comports with the finding of the ICJ and indicates that the current treatment of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military may plausibly constitute a genocide in violation of international law”.

South Africa alleges Israel violating ruling to prevent Gaza deaths

Miranda Nazzaro
Thu, February 1, 2024 


South Africa on Wednesday accused Israel of violating the United Nations’ top court’s recent ruling to prevent deaths in Gaza, as Israel pushes forward with its campaign to eliminate the threat of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The U.N. International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling last week ordered Israel to do more to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip, and gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government one month to present a plan. The ruling, however, did not explicitly call for a cease-fire in the war.

The ICJ also found it is “at the very least plausible that Israel is committing genocide,” as the death toll climbs past 26,700 people in Gaza, The Associated Press reported, citing the Health Ministry in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor on Wednesday said the ICJ’s ruling “makes it clear that it is plausible that genocide is taking place against the Palestinian people in Gaza. This necessarily imposes an obligation on all states to cease funding and facilitating Israel’s military actions,” Reuters reported.

Israel has repeatedly defended its bombardment of Gaza following Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel Oct. 7, which left approximately 1,200 people dead.

Israeli forces continued attacks in the territory following the ruling, according to the Health Ministry, which said Wednesday 150 people were killed in the 24 hours prior, The AP reported. The Health Ministry did not discern between combatants and civilians in its count, but has said the majority of those killed are women and children.

Israel’s government has argued its actions in Gaza do not amount to genocide, and that it has made attempts to limit civilian deaths in the coastal enclave. Netanyahu has said his country “will continue to do what is necessary to defend our country and defend our people.”

“I can’t be dishonest. I believe the rulings of the court have been ignored,” South Africa’s foreign minister said, per The AP. “Hundreds of people have been killed in the last three or four days. And clearly Israel believes it has license to do as it wishes.”

Pandor warned of the dangers if the world does not do more to curb civilian causalities, comparing the situation in Gaza to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, when over 800,000 people were killed in the East African nation, the AP noted.

“We are allowing this to happen again, right before our eyes, on our TV screens,” Pandor reportedly said.

She also raised the question of why an arrest warrant for Netanyahu has not been issued in South Africa’s separate case filed at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the AP reported.

Pandor added South Africa would “look at proposing other measures to the global community,” to prevent Israel from killing more civilians in Gaza Strip. Hamas, a group the U.S. and E.U. have designated as a terrorist organization, controls Gaza.

South Africa filed a case against Netanyahu to the ICC in November, alleging Israel is committing war crimes.

“The (ICC) prosecutor assured us the matter is in hand and being looked at by his office,” Pandor said of her country’s allegations. “What I felt he didn’t answer me sufficiently on was, I asked him why he was able to issue an arrest warrant for Mr. Putin while he is unable to do so for the Prime Minister of Israel. He couldn’t answer and didn’t answer that question.”