AMERICAN JUDGE ISSUES GENOCIDE WARNING TO BIDEN & CO
February 2, 2024In this summary by US Breaking Points TV Host, Krystal Ball, she analyses the outcome of the decision by U.S. Federal Judge, Jeffrey White, to dismiss the lawsuit by Palestinian-rights advocates accusing President Biden of enabling genocide by Israel in Gaza.
As Ball explains, the outcome was not all bad as Judge White, in delivering his ruling issued a strong warning to Biden and his administration stating that there is strong evidence that Israel’s “military siege in Gaza is intended to eradicate a whole people and therefore plausibly falls within the international prohibition against genocide,”
This decision aligns with the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) finding that Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip may plausibly constitute genocide. The judge, while unable to proceed due to legal constraints, supported the ICJ’s ruling and urged defendants, including Biden, to stop their unremitting and fervent support for the Israeli siege on Gaza.
The plaintiffs and their lawyers noted that the judge’s inclusion of a recognition that there was evidence to support Israel was committing genocide in Gaza was a HISTORIC MOMENT.
Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the Biden administration should “”””heed”””” the judge’s call and said they would continue to pursue all legal avenues.
Following the hearing, Judge White lamented that the case was “”””the most difficult case”””” he had ever presided over.
“”””In 27 years, this is the most difficult case to have come before this court in terms of facts and law,”””” he said. “”””Testimonies we heard were horrifying and gut-wrenching.””””
“”””To the [Palestinian] witnesses we heard…””””
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English Script:
Krystal Ball: There was a court case, it hasn’t gotten a lot of attention. But here, working its way through the US courts, accusing Biden of complicity in genocide. And we actually just got a ruling yesterday. That is pretty interesting. Let’s go ahead and put this up on the screen.
So a federal judge just ruled the Biden administration does appear to be supporting a genocide. They go on to say, but he must dismiss the case under the political question doctrine, despite preferring otherwise. So this judge is saying basically, like because of the political questions doctrine, I can’t actually do anything here. But he backs up the ICJ ruling, which found that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Let me read you a little bit of the judgment here so that you guys can hear the way that this judge lays this out.
They say: similarly, the undisputed evidence before this court comports with the finding of the ICJ 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. Both the uncontroverted testimony of the plaintiffs and the expert opinion proffered at the hearing on these motions, as well as statements made by various officers of the Israeli government, indicate the ongoing military siege in Gaza is intended to eradicate a whole people and therefore plausibly falls within the international prohibition against genocide. It is every individual’s obligation to confront the current siege in Gaza. But it also is this court’s obligation to remain within the metes and bounds of its jurisdictional scope.
In conclusion, the judge writes, “There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases, the court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinates branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter. Yet, as ICJ has found, it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide. This court implores defendants, that would be Joe Biden, to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.
So basically, you know this is kind of a mixed bag, Emily, for the Biden administration on the one hand, the judge says, listen, I can’t do anything because of the political questions doctrine. But to have an American judge rule that the ICJ is correct and implore Biden directly to cease his aid of what may well be a genocide of the Palestinian people is nonetheless a pretty extraordinary outcome.
Emily Jashinsky: And a refresher on the political questions doctrine I pulled up about PDR here. They they write The traditional expression of the doctrine refers to cases that courts will not resolve because they involve questions about the judgment of actors in the executive or legislative branches and not the authority of those actors. So Biden himself, people who are making decisions at the Pentagon, they say, for example, cases involving foreign policy or impeachment often raise political question concerns. So foreign policy, which is so heavily controlled and influenced by unelected people at the Pentagon, at the Department of Defense, more broadly by people in the executive branch, fall under the political questions doctrine, which is pretty interesting in this context, where you have a court decision by the ICJ that’s in question, it makes sense, and then it doesn’t make sense because again, you have a court decision that you’re talking about. So it’s an interesting ruling for sure, and this doesn’t make anything better for Joe Biden.
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