Rights advocates urge court to review genocide case against US President Joe Biden

A range of rights advocates from different sectors are urging for a court review of claims that US President Joe Biden is enabling genocide in Gaza.

The plaintiffs and their advocates argue that the courts are constitutionally required to examine the legality of the US administration's actions.

The lawsuit, which was filed in November and brought to US federal court in January, claims that Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin are violating US and international law by enabling Israel's genocide in Gaza.

If a rehearing is granted, the case would be heard by an eleven-judge en banc court, with all judges of the court hearing the case. For an en banc review, a case must be related to a matter of exceptional importance or have inconsistency with previous court rulings. The plaintiffs argue that they meet both criteria.

Since October of last year, daily Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and the occupied West Bank have killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians. Some estimates put the death toll much higher, particularly when including starvation, poor sanitation and lack of medical care in the densely populated besieged enclave.

Multiple human rights experts have described Israel's actions as genocide. By extension, the plaintiffs argue that US funding of Israel's weapons used in Gaza constitute the enabling of genocide.