Oakland, California - Palestinian plaintiffs and their legal representatives on Friday presented a powerful case in federal court accusing President Joe Biden and other top US officials of complicity in Israel's genocide in Gaza.

People around the world tuned in for the long-awaited hearing in Oakland, with plaintiffs appearing in person and over Zoom in an unprecedented effort to hold the Biden administration accountable for its actions in Gaza.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed the lawsuit in November 2023 on behalf of Defense for Children International–Palestine, Al-Haq, and eight Palestinians in the US and Palestine. The complaint accuses President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin of failing to live up to their legal responsibilities under the 1948 Genocide Convention and the 1988 Genocide Convention Implementation Act.

The United Nations convention classifies complicity in genocide, or the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part, as a crime under international law and requires that states take measures to prevent such atrocities.

Israel-Gaza War Israel pummels Syria with hundreds of airstrikes amid reports of expanding invasion

The historic lawsuit contends that the Biden administration has failed to uphold its obligations by continuing to provide diplomatic and military support for Israel's brutal campaign in Gaza. Plaintiffs are asking the court to stop Biden from sending more weapons and munitions to Israel that are being used to kill Palestinians en masse.

The hearing before the US District Court for the Northern District of California took place just hours after the International Court of Justice issued provisional measures against Israel in a landmark case brought by South Africa.

In evaluating the allegations, questioning in Friday's hearing revolved around the so-called political question doctrine, by which federal courts regularly refrain from ruling on political matters seen as best resolved by the president and Congress.

The Department of Justice argued that according to the doctrine, the court has no jurisdiction to rule in the case.

"If the court condemns United States foreign policy toward Israel, it could cause international embarrassment and undermine foreign policy decisions in the sensitive context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," defense counsel Jean Lin told Senior District Judge Jeffrey S. White.

Joke of the Day Joke of the Day for December 9, 2024: The best jokes to get your funny on

Katherine Gallagher of the CCR countered that the court does, indeed, have a responsibility to step in: "Here, the question is a legal one, whether the actions undertaken by the United States failed to uphold the obligation to prevent genocide, and that is an active obligation that requires that the United States not provide the means by which a genocide is being furthered."

"There is no discretion for any state to evade its obligations, its legal obligations. These are not policy decisions," she said.

After legal arguments in the case, Judge White heard two hours of gut-wrenching testimony from Palestinian plaintiffs and a renowned Holocaust and genocide expert.

Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History at Wake Forest University Dr. Barry Trachtenberg shared his remarks before the court in spite of vehement US government opposition.

"To have an event fall under the 1948 Convention on Genocide requires both action and intent, and here we see that very, very clearly in a way that seems really quite unique in history," he stated, noting that there is now an opportunity to stop Israel's unfolding genocide in real time to prevent further loss of lives.

Dr. Trachtenberg filed an expert brief in the case in November, but said the situation in Gaza has gotten far worse since that time.

Palestinian plaintiffs spoke to the unfathomable personal cost of the Israeli devastation and the US' failure to prevent it.

The destruction of Gaza "has really left me with a profound feeling of not just sorrow and sadness, but helplessness and injustice," author and plaintiff Laila El-Haddad told the court. "All of this is compounded by knowledge that my taxpayer money and my government is complicit in this ongoing genocide against my family and the destruction of everything that I knew and I loved."

"It's also made me feel as a Palestinian-American Muslim unseen and unheard and discriminated against and dehumanized, completely invisible to hear our president not only actively support this but cast doubt on the deaths of my family members and other Palestinians in Gaza," she continued.

"I have lost everything in this world," testified 24-year-old intern physician Dr. Omar Al-Najjar, calling in from a hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

"I have nothing left but my grief, a lifeless body walking in this earth," he said. "This is what Israel and its supporters have done to us."

Judge White said he would take the testimonies to heart as he evaluates his constitutional responsibilities, describing the case as "the most difficult judicial decision" he has ever had to make.