“We simply ask the State Department to treat Palestinian Americans the way it treats Americans of other backgrounds when they’re trapped in conflict zones.”
Nine Palestinian Americans have filed a lawsuit against the government of the United States accusing it of failing to rescue them or members of their families who were trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“The US government is legally obligated to protect its citizens. Every day of inaction increases the risk of death from bombardment, starvation, or disease,” lead attorney Maria Kari said. “The State Department must fulfill its duty and save these lives.”
Kari, along with the advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), announced the lawsuit on Thursday, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
It names Joe Biden, the US president, Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, and Lloyd J Austin, US Defense Secretary, as the defendants.
‘Statutory Obligations’
The plaintiffs are US citizens, legal permanent residents, and immediate relatives of US “persons” who are “stranded in Gaza and deprived of the standard efforts the government has always deployed to evacuate US persons and their families from warzones,” according to the court papers.
The Law Office of Maria Kari and CAIR have filed a lawsuit against the @StateDept, alleging it failed to evacuate Palestinian-Americans trapped in Gaza during ongoing conflict.
Lead attorney Maria Kari stated, “The U.S. government is legally obligated to protect its citizens.… pic.twitter.com/q1dgKfnR1b
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) December 19, 2024
Through this lawsuit, plaintiffs “challenge the constitutionality of the federal government’s discriminatory practice of abandoning Americans of Palestinian national origin trapped in a warzone while promptly evacuating and acting to protect similarly situated Americans of different national origins from the same warzone.”
It seeks to compel the US government to “fulfill their statutory obligations” to make the same effort to evacuate the plaintiffs “as they have other Americans in other Situations.”
The court papers state that defendants’ reasons for their failure to evacuate the plaintiffs stranded in Gaza “are not compelling government interests, as the feasibility of evacuation is clear, not only because Defendants evacuated American persons of other national origins …, but also because Defendants have evacuated other United States citizens, legal permanent residents, and their immediate relatives under comparable circumstances.”
‘Eligible to be Evacuated’
“The lawsuit comes after the plaintiffs, all Palestinian-Americans, have tried, for months, to exhaust non-legal means to escape Gaza,” CAIR said in a press statement on Thursday.
“Each plaintiff in the lawsuit is eligible to be evacuated but has been summarily ignored by the State Department and other Biden administration officials,” the organization added.
It's been over a year & I continue to represent Americans stranded in Gaza who their own government has abandoned.
We've knocked on every door, begging elected reps & officials high up in the Biden admin to bring home these Palestinian Americans & their immediate relatives.… https://t.co/pZRGkg7Znc
— Maria Kari (@mariakari1414) December 19, 2024
CAIR pointed out that when similarly situated Americans of different backgrounds have been trapped in conflict zones, “the State Department has acted with appropriate urgency.”
The State Department, said the organization, has cited the closure of Rafah as the ostensible reason for its failure to help Palestinian-Americans in Gaza,” but the lawsuit specifically calls for evacuations through Kerem Shalom, where evacuations have been done in the past.”
Fifth Amendment Violation
The lawsuit alleges that the State Department’s disparate treatment of Palestinian-Americans violates the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees equal protection for citizens and legal residents abroad under federal law, said CAIR.
“The government has a duty to protect American citizens and has failed its duty here by abandoning our clients in Gaza,” said CAIR National Deputy Litigation Director Gadeir Abbas.
“We simply ask the State Department to treat Palestinian Americans the way it treats Americans of other backgrounds when they’re trapped in conflict zones.”
Second Case
This is the second such case this week with five Palestinian families filing a complaint on Tuesday against the US State Department over Washington’s military aid to Israel. The suit cites a US law that prohibits arming any foreign military force if it is accused of violating human rights.
Palestinian Families Just Sued US State Department – This is Why
The complaint, which the State Department must respond to within 60 days, calls for the law to be applied to Israel, which the complainants and rights groups say has been unlawfully exempted from the law.
Billions in Military Aid
Since the start of the Israeli genocide on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, the US government has enacted laws allowing it to provide the equivalent of $12.5 billion in military aid to its strategic ally.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 45,206 Palestinians have been killed, and 107,512 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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