Seventy-seven groups back lawsuit accusing Biden administration of failing to prevent genocide in Gaza

Numerous global legal and civil society groups support a US lawsuit against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, alleging their failure to avert an ongoing genocide in Gaza, The Intercept reported.

In late December, 77 groups encompassing tens of thousands of legal professionals, leaders in civil society, and activists from six continents, filed an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit initiated by Palestinian human rights groups, Gaza residents, and US citizens with relatives affected by Israel’s continuous operations, against the Biden administration.

The groups say that the plaintiffs have demonstrated an ongoing genocide, or a grave risk of it, against Palestinians in Gaza, The Intercept reported.

They also add that the US is breaching its international legal obligations to both prevent and avoid complicity in genocide. These failures by the US, they argue, are undermining established international legal norms, as set out in the Genocide Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The lawsuit is scheduled for a hearing later this month in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.