President Biden Is Accused In Court In California Of Genocide In Gaza CASE NO.: 3:23-cv-58

CASE NO.: 3:23-cv-5829 COMPLAINT
https://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/attach/2023/11/Complaint_DCI-Pal-v-Biden_w.pdf

INTRODUCTION

1. This case is brought on behalf of Palestinian human rights organizations and
individuals to enforce what is perhaps the most basic and important legal, and moral, obligation in the world – the obligation to prevent genocide, the destruction of a people. This duty is enshrined in the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which the United States, Israel and Palestine have all acceded, and it is judicially enforceable as a peremptory norm of customary international law. Plaintiffs seek an order of this Court requiring that the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense adhere to their duty to prevent, and not further, the unfolding genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza. If the legal responsibility to prevent an unfolding genocide is to mean anything – indeed, if the rule of law is to signify anything – courts must have a role and responsibility to enforce these foundational international law principles. The lives of so many more people are at stake.

2. For the past five weeks the world has watched the Palestinian people of Gaza, half of
whom are children, be subjected to an unrelenting and unprecedented bombing campaign unleashed by the Israeli military – a campaign that is both overwhelming in its destructive scale and seemingly indiscriminate in its devastation of Gazan life, infrastructure and the basic human conditions of livelihood. The bombings have leveled critical civilian infrastructure – approximately a third in northern Gaza alone has been damaged or destroyed – taking in its destruction numerous hospitals, schools and universities, United Nations safe havens as well as all the elementary attributes necessary for the existence of civilian life, including water, fuel, medicine and food.

3. This military bombardment has killed over 11,000 Palestinian civilians, more than
4,500 of them children, as well as entire families, numerous journalists and UN workers. The number of casualties has not been updated since November 10 following the collapse of services and communications at hospitals in Northern Gaza. The bombardment has left many hundreds or thousands more civilians suffocating and suffering under rubble; it has forced the displacement of approximately 1.6 million persons, including in a manner likely designed to prevent their return to their homes. This bombardment has been accompanied by a total siege of Gaza, depriving Palestinians in Gaza the conditions of life necessary for human survival: food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity.