US court found Israel ‘plausibly’ engaged in committing genocide: Legal advocacy group

By Merve Berker

A US federal court has found that Israel is “plausibly engaging in genocide” in Gaza and “implored” the White House to “examine its unwavering support of Israel,” according to a New York-based legal advocacy group on Wednesday.

In a statement, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said the court heard a lawsuit that charged the US administration “with failing in its duty to prevent, and otherwise aiding and abetting, the unfolding genocide in Gaza.”

The CCR said: “A federal judge found that Israel is plausibly engaging in genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and that the United States is providing ‘unflagging support’ for the massive attacks on Palestinian civilians in contravention of international law.”

The assessment of the US federal court is based on the “uncontroverted” live testimony of seven Palestinian witnesses, it added.

“The court also relied on the expert opinion of genocide and Holocaust scholars who confirmed that Israel’s military assault and totalizing humanitarian destruction bears the hallmarks of a genocide based on legal and historical precedent,” it added.

The group said that the court “dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds.”

The CCR further said: “The court recognized the substantial role of the United States in furthering the genocide and noted that ‘as the ICJ has found, it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide’ and, therefore, the ‘Court implores Defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza’.”

According to the legal advocacy group, the court indicated: “It is every individual’s obligation to confront the current siege in Gaza.”

Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, killing at least 26,900 Palestinians and injuring 65,949. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.