In November, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court on behalf of Palestinian human rights organizations and Palestinians in Gaza and the U.S., charging President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin with failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide against them, their families, and the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, in violation of international law. The case will be heard in Oakland, California on January 26. Read more about the case here.
The U.S. is a signatory to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, known simply as the Genocide Convention. In 1988, Congress passed the Genocide Convention Implementation Act, making it federal law. International law places a legal duty on President Biden and other high-level officials to prevent genocide. As the primary provider of military and political support to Israel, the U.S. has significant capacity to influence Israel's actions. Therefore, the U.S. has been obligated, since learning of the serious risk of genocide in Gaza, to use its considerable influence to prevent the crime.
However, President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin have not fulfilled their duty to prevent genocide. Instead, they have publicly expressed unconditional support for the Israeli government's actions and provided additional military financial assistance and equipment to help it carry out its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Despite global calls for a ceasefire, they have continued to support Israel without establishing any "red lines." In 2023, the U.S. government provided Israel with $3.8 billion in unrestricted military financing. Since the indiscriminate bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza began on October 7, the defendants have sought congressional approval to provide an additional $14.3 billion in military hardware, deployed aircraft carrier battle groups, and increased U.S. forces in the region to "assist in the defense of Israel." In December 2023, the Biden administration bypassed congressional review twice, and approved a total of more than $250 million in emergency weapons sales to Israel - reflecting a dangerous disregard for checks and balances in matters of international affairs and human rights.
While the U.S. government has shirked its responsibilities under the 1948 Genocide Convention, South Africa has stepped up to fulfill its obligations as a signatory to the Convention, and charged Israel with genocide at International Court of Justice (ICJ) - the United Nations’ top court also known as the “World Court”, which settles disputes between states. Although the ICJ cannot prosecute individuals, South Africa’s case against Israel bolsters the U.S. federal case, and has raised the stakes for the administration in opening it up to future charges for complicity in genocide. This means that the CCR case is likely just the tip of the iceberg of many future cases against the Biden administration for its role in the continuation of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a crime for which there is no statute of limitations.
Why The Butcher Biden?
On January 16, Irish politician and member of the European Parliament, Clare Daly, condemned President Biden’s complicity with the massacres in Gaza, calling him Butcher Biden. She tweeted:
““As Israel loses in the court of public opinion, we see desperate attempts to widen the conflict. All with the blessing and material support of the #ButcherBiden, a US President who claims Irish descent. Keep our country out of your mouth, @JoeBiden. Your ancestors disown you.””
But Biden isn't the only butcher within the administration or in the world. Check out this new War Criminals Card deck to see who some of the main perpetrators of genocide are and make sure they get no rest.
Why are we charging Biden with genocide?
Israel has dropped bombs that have killed over 24,000 Palestinians, including 10,000 children. Israeli airstrikes have targeted hospitals, schools, and refugee camps, and decimated entire neighborhoods. Israel has effectively cut off fuel, food, water, and medical supplies for over 2 million people in Gaza.
All this violence is being funded by U.S. tax dollars, and our institutions are spreading disinformation and propaganda in an attempt to cover up and justify genocide.
We demand that President Biden and Congress take immediate action to stop Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. The U.S. must immediately call for a permanent ceasefire to prevent the further loss of life.
The U.S. must immediately stop all military funding and weapons shipments to the Israeli government. Israel can only carry out genocide in Gaza with the funding and backing of the U.S. government. We have a responsibility to force our government to stop the genocide.
Genocide is the gravest of crimes under international law. As defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention, genocide refers to specific actions – including killing or deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of a group in whole or in part – taken with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, the group targeted, including on ethnic or national grounds.
Numerous Israeli government leaders have expressed clear genocidal intentions and deployed dehumanizing characterizations of Palestinians, including “human animals.” At the same time, the Israeli military has bombed civilian areas and infrastructure, including by using chemical weapons, and deprived Palestinians of everything necessary for human life, including water, food, electricity, fuel, and medicine. Those statements of intent – when combined with mass killing, the infliction of serious bodily and mental harm, and the total siege and closure of Gaza creating conditions of life to bring about the physical destruction of the group – reveal evidence of an unfolding crime of genocide.
What can you do?
We believe that the U.S. government should divest from militarism and invest in life!
We will not support our taxpayer dollars going to fund war at home or abroad. We demand that our government do what it was created to do and fund people’s needs - not genocide, weapons, and war! The U.S. Congress is currently negotiating an additional $105 billion spending package for war and militarism. That money could instead:
Keep child care centers open to serve 3.2 million children now at risk of losing care ($16 billion)
Fund healthcare for 4.8 million children ($14 billion)
Pay for 6 million public housing units ($58 billion)
Resettle 1.4 million refugees ($7.8 billion)
Build solar power for 23.9 million homes ($9.6 billion)
