The plaintiffs want the federal court to order the United States to use its influence to force Israel to end its hostilities in Gaza.

A civil trial accusing US President Joe Biden and other senior US officials of complicity in Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza has begun in federal court in California.

Lawyers representing Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attended Friday’s hearing along with the plaintiffs, who accuse them of “failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a US civil rights group, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the human rights organization Defense for Children – Palestine; Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group based in the occupied West Bank; and eight Palestinians and U.S. citizens with relatives in Gaza.

During Friday’s hearing, the court heard from lawyers, activists and organizers, including doctors in Gaza, about the situation Palestinians have been facing for nearly four months.

I am in US federal court where Palestinian plaintiffs are suing Biden, Blinken and Austin for failure to prevent and complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza

It is unprecedented that the case has come to this point. Palestinian and family in Gaza will testify soon @ajplus pic.twitter.com/F5CUNAKGUD

– Dena Takruri (@Dena) January 26, 2024

More than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7, after a Hamas attack on Israel killed about 1,100 people there.

The CCR complaint was the first filed in November last year, saying Biden, Blinken and Austin “not only failed to uphold the country’s commitment to prevent genocide, but also created the conditions for its development by providing unconditional military and diplomatic support.” [to Israel]“.

The CCR calls on the court to “declare that the defendants have breached their duty under customary international law, as part of federal customary law, to take all measures in their power to prevent Israel from committing genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza “.

The group also demands that the US use its influence over Israel to end hostilities against Palestinians in Gaza.

“Political Doctrine”

Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds reported from the Oakland court on Friday and said the CCR argues that US support by supplying weapons to Israel violates the 1948 Genocide Convention.

In response, Biden administration lawyers are “focused on a very narrow legal argument,” he said.

“They say the court has no authority to decide on this. They invoke what is called political doctrine, which has to do with the separation of powers in the United States,” Reynolds said.

He explained that lawyers argue that the conduct of foreign policy, diplomacy, military activities and relations between allies are within the “political purview of the executive branch, that is, the President and the Cabinet,” and therefore is not amenable to judicial action from other branches of power the US government exists.

The judge also appeared to question his authority in the case, Reynolds said.

“That is really the fundamental question of whether he has the authority to decide this, but the judge opened the proceedings with a litany simply describing the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza,” our correspondent said.

Earlier on Friday the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to take all possible measures to prevent genocide in Gaza and to do more to help civilians.

Still, it failed to call for a ceasefire called for by South Africa, which took the case to the International Court of Justice.