Bay Area attorney Ghassan Shamieh and the Arab American Civil Rights League filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of two Palestinian-American grandmothers who were trapped in Gaza.
“We file this lawsuit in hopes that it will finally provoke the State Department to take action to bring these U.S. citizens home,” Shamieh said in a Thursday press conference.
The lawsuit accuses the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense of giving preferential treatment to U.S. citizens evacuating Israel, over Palestinian-Americans trapped in Gaza.
It says that disparity violates the Equal Protections Clause of the Constitution, which guarantees all American citizens equal protection under the law.
Several similar lawsuits have been filed across the country.
Two weeks ago, the U.S. State Department partnered with the Royal Caribbean International cruise line to evacuate several American citizens from Israel. Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinian Americans are still trapped under heavy bombardment in Gaza.
“We will hold [the U.S. government] accountable for the safety of every single one of its citizens … We are also here to call out the disparate treatment of Palestinian Americans as compared to Israeli Americans,” Shameih said.
The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened Wednesday, but evacuations are limited to approved foreign nationals.
Attorney Shamieh’s clients, two grandmothers from the Bay Area, have been approved to cross into Egypt. They’ve chosen to stay anonymous for their safety.
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One woman was able to cross the border Thursday, but the other is still trapped in Gaza. Her grandson, Sayed Bseiso, said she’s run out of her necessary medication and is medically fragile.
“There is a major risk of her leaving the shelter she's in to go try, to keep continuing to try without any communication or anyone out there looking for them, or trying to help them get over,” he said.
Bseiso said he hasn’t been able to speak to his grandmother in a couple days because of communications blackouts, but he and his family hope she’ll be able to cross in the coming days.
Shamieh said if both his clients make it out safely, he plans to drop the lawsuit.
