US government sued over alleged discrimination against Palestinian Americans

[August 13, 2024]  By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Muslim advocacy group filed a lawsuit on Monday against the FBI and leaders of other U.S. government agencies over what it called the discriminatory and racist placement of two Palestinian Americans on a watch list.

The lawsuit is related to the placement of one Palestinian American - Mustafa Zeidan - on the U.S. government "no-fly list" and the seizure of an electronic device of another Palestinian American - Osama Abu Irshaid - while federal agents interrogated him about his organizing against Israel's war in Gaza, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said.

Irshaid, who is the executive director of an organization called American Muslims for Palestine, traveled to Qatar from the U.S. in late May and returned in early June, according to the lawsuit, which alleged that he was forced to undergo extra screening and questioning while having his phone seized. The phone has not been returned, it added.

"CAIR is challenging the mistreatment of these Palestinian American activists on constitutional grounds," the group said.

"Neither Dr. Abu Irshaid nor Mr. Zeidan have ever been charged or convicted of a violent crime," added the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit were the leaders of government agencies including the Homeland Security Department and the State Department. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zeidan lives in California and frequently visits his ailing mother in Jordan, the lawsuit said. He was not allowed to board a flight on his way to Jordan earlier this year and was told later by authorities that he was placed on the no-fly list.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation seal is seen at FBI headquarters in Washington, U.S. June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo

The list was established in 2003 and is administered by the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had no comment on the lawsuit specifically but a spokesperson said its Terrorist Screening Center does not list people based on race or religion or any free-speech activity.

Human-rights advocates say there has been a rise of Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias, anti-Arab hate and antisemitism in the United States since the start of the war in Gaza last October.

Alarming U.S. incidents include the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois last October, the February stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Texas, the shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent in Vermont in November and the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in May.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Gaza health ministry says that since then Israel's military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed about 40,000 Palestinians while displacing nearly its entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations that Israel denies.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.