This story has been updated with new details.
Imagine owning a vacation home in Florida, the Caribbean or Europe and the local police there set out to target gang activity – and wipe out your cottage or villa in the process.
That’s what a new lawsuit alleges has happened in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have bombed scores of Lebanese Americans’ homes and businesses this year with the help of U.S. tax dollars – an arrangement that is now at the center of a novel lawsuit that seeks to hold the U.S. government responsible for the overseas devastation.
In an unprecedented move, 17 Lebanese Americans and a civil rights group are suing the federal government over Israeli bombings that have destroyed their homes, businesses and property in their native country of Lebanon, alleging the U.S. and various military contractors are responsible for their losses.
Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that the U.S. is giving Israel preferential treatment by allegedly supporting its attack on Lebanon, all while ignoring a federal human rights law that bans such support. More than 4,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since March 2, including medics, women and children.
The lawsuit, though, is not about the loss of life.
It’s about the loss of family homes, land and businesses that belong to Lebanese Americans who believe the U.S. government and multiple corporations did them wrong by allegedly supporting this warfare − either in the form of weapons, machinery or equipment − and need to pay up for their losses.
“For Lebanese Americans who watched their homes, family property, businesses, villages, and generations of history destroyed from thousands of miles away, this case is deeply personal,” the Arab American Civil Rights League, or ACRL, said in a statement on the eve of filing what it is calling a landmark lawsuit.
“At the center of this case is a fundamental question: Are the laws of the United States meant to be enforced equally —or does Israel receive an exception?” the ACRL states.
In a federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Aug. 11, in U.S. District Court in Detroit, the Arab American Civil Rights League and 17 plaintiffs allege the U.S. has ignored a federal human rights law known as the Leahy Act, which prohibits the U.S. from giving aid to a foreign military when there is credible information that that country has committed a “gross violation of human rights.”
That’s what Israel has done, according to the lawsuit, yet still gets U.S. support, allegedly in violation of its own human rights law.
Since Oct. 7, 2023 – the day the Islamic militant group Hamas in Gaza launched a surprise attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 Israelis – Israel has been engaged in an intense, on-and-off-again fight with Hezbollah, a similar group in Lebanon. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, oppose Israel and have been designated terrorist organizations by the U.S and other countries. Since March, more than 4,000 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks. In comparison, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel following the 2023 Hamas invasion, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ongoing conflict has created several challenges for U.S. policy makers, including how to protect Israel from attacks by Iran-backed terrorist groups, and how to stop the violence from spreading in the region.
The lawsuit names numerous defendants, including: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, The Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Caterpillar Inc.
A State Department spokesperson declined comment, citing agency policy not to comment on pending or ongoing litigation. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson also declined comment for the same reason. As of 6 p.m. Aug. 11, the two other corporate defendants were unavailable for comment, as was the Chicago-based Consulate General of Israel, which is an official representative of Isreal’s Government and serves nine Midwest states, including Michigan.
On the corporate front, the lawsuit seeks to hold these private companies accountable for allegedly providing military equipment and machinery that were used to destroy civilian homes, land, businesses and other property in Lebanon.
The defendants are accused of multiple wrongdoings, including: negligent entrustment, willful and wanton misconduct, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and aiding and abetting trespass to land.
“For me, this case could not be more personal,” said ACRL Executive Director Houda Berri-Harajli, a Lebanese American who recalled numerous attacks over the years that destroyed her grandmother’s home in Lebanon. These attacks, she said, were carried out with the help of U.S. tax dollars that – she argues – have long been unlawfully used to help Israel destroy property, homes and businesses belonging to innocent people.
Nasser Beydoun, a U.S. citizen, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit and chairman of ACRL, agrees. It’s personal for him as well. According to the lawsuit, his family home in Bint Jbeil, which survived three wars, was destroyed in an Israeli attack this year. It was built by his father, who had spent more than 30 years working at Ford Motor Co., saving enough to build the home he had always dreamed of returning to in Lebanon. Construction began in 2000 and was completed in 2006.
“Yet, just days after a ceasefire was announced, Israeli forces deliberately destroyed his family home without any military necessity or justification,” the lawsuit states. “In a single moment, decades of hard work, cherished memories, and a lifetime of sacrifice were reduced to rubble.”
“There comes a moment when silence is no longer acceptable,” said Beydoun, alleging the U.S. needs to be held accountable for – as he sees it – ignoring its own laws and funding wars that are hurting U.S. citizens.
“We need to end the endless wars that our country has been funding,” Beydoun said, stressing that it’s up to the judiciary to intervene, stop the U.S. funding of Israel, and hold the U.S. accountable for the loss of property suffered by Americans in Lebanon.
ACRL founder Nabih Ayad, the lead attorney handling the lawsuit, said he expects pushback, even threats. But he’s not backing down from this fight, he said, stressing he is counting on judges to order the U.S. to cease its funding of Israel and pay back the billions of dollars in losses suffered by American property owners.
“They cannot sit here and watch as their taxes are being used to destroy their own homes,” Ayad said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit. “It’s outrageous. … We must stop this aggression from happening to our own U.S. citizens.”
Ayad likened what’s happening to Lebanese American property owners in Lebanon to a hypothetical situation of U.S. citizens owning homes in the Caribbean, Mexico or Up North: How would they feel, he asked, if a local military or police department set out to target gang violence in a certain area, and wiped out their vacation homes in the process when they were merely innocent property owners?
That’s what is happening in Southern Lebanon, he said: Property owners who have nothing to do with resistance efforts are getting their homes destroyed as part of a broader war effort by Israel. And the U.S. is aiding that effort, he said, despite a law that prohibits that.
“There’s a law on the books … it says very clear what you can and cannot do,” said Ayad, who is counting on the judiciary to intervene and do what Congress and the Executive Branch have been unwilling to do: Stop the U.S. from aiding Israel’s war efforts.
“This is our last resort under this administration,” Ayad said. “Our saving grace is the judiciary.”
Tresa Baldas:tbaldas@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: ‘We must stop this’ – Novel lawsuit challenges U.S. aid to Israel
Reporting by Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
