{"id":27205,"date":"2024-12-19T22:22:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T05:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=27205"},"modified":"2024-12-20T12:18:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T19:18:30","slug":"us-accused-of-failing-to-rescue-9-americans-in-gaza-because-of-their-palestinian-origin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/us-accused-of-failing-to-rescue-9-americans-in-gaza-because-of-their-palestinian-origin\/","title":{"rendered":"US accused of failing to rescue 9 Americans in Gaza because of their Palestinian origin"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_27206\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27206\" style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-27206 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Palestina-Bandera.jpg\" alt=\"Palestinian flag, US accused of not rescuing 9 Americans in Gaza because of their Palestinian origin\" width=\"1280\" height=\"779\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Palestina-Bandera.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Palestina-Bandera-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Palestina-Bandera-1024x623.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Palestina-Bandera-768x467.jpg 768w, https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Palestina-Bandera-18x12.jpg 18w, https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Palestina-Bandera-150x91.jpg 150w, https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Palestina-Bandera-696x424.jpg 696w, https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Palestina-Bandera-1068x650.jpg 1068w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-27206\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On Thursday, the US was accused of not rescuing 9 Americans in Gaza because of their Palestinian origin. Photo: Pixabay (Archive)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Listen to this note:<\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-27205-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Viviana-6133428.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Viviana-6133428.mp3\">https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Viviana-6133428.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The US State Department has been sued for discrimination against nine Palestinian Americans and their families who were trapped in Gaza after an Israeli bombing and were not evacuated by the US government.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/lawsuit.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> demand<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The petition filed Thursday by US citizens of Palestinian origin is accusing the federal government of abandoning them in a war zone, without making the same effort as it would make to quickly evacuate its citizens in conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Lebanon or Sudan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The accusation directly alludes to President Joseph Biden; Secretary of State Antony Blinken; and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who are accused of depriving the nine citizens and their families \u201cof the normal and typical evacuation efforts that the federal government extends to non-Palestinian Americans,\u201d according to the Reuters news agency.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and was announced by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the law office of attorney Maria Kari.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lawsuit was filed after the plaintiffs, all Palestinian-Americans, tried for months to exhaust illegal means to escape Gaza, the nonprofit said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In that regard, he said that all the applicants have the right to be evacuated, but the State Department and other Biden administration officials have summarily ignored them, while other Americans of different origins and in similar situations who have been trapped in conflict zones have been urgently helped.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe U.S. government is required by law to protect Americans wherever they are. With each passing day, the danger of our clients dying from Israeli bombing or from the famine and disease now rampant in Gaza only increases,\u201d said lead attorney Maria Kari. \u201cThe State Department must do the right thing and save these people from certain death.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lawsuit claims that the State Department&#039;s unequal treatment of Palestinian Americans violates the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees equal protection to citizens and legal residents abroad under federal law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe government has a duty to protect American citizens and has failed in this case by abandoning our clients in Gaza. We are simply asking the State Department to treat Palestinian Americans the same way it treats Americans of other backgrounds when they are caught in conflict zones,\u201d said CAIR Deputy National Litigation Director Gadeir Abbas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attorney Yasmeen Elagha, another advocate in the case, said her own family has suffered from inaction by the U.S. State Department.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe State Department must act to evacuate our clients now, before another soul is lost,\u201d he stressed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The nine American citizen plaintiffs are: Khalid Mourtaga, Salsabeel Elhelou, Sahar Harara, Sawsan Kahil, Marowa Abusharia, Mohanad Alnajjar, Mariam Alrayes, Heba Enayeh, and Samia Abualreesh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In response to the allegations, a State Department spokesperson said the security of U.S. citizens around the world \u201cis a top priority,\u201d but clarified that the department does not comment on pending litigation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>You may be interested in: <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/israeli-bombings-of-homes-in-gaza\/\"><strong>Israeli bombings on Gaza homes leave 14 dead<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Escucha esta nota: &nbsp; El Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos fue demandado por discriminaci\u00f3n en contra de nueve palestinos estadounidenses y sus familiares, quienes quedaron atrapados en Gaza tras un bombardeo israel\u00ed, y no fueron evacuados por el gobierno estadounidense. En la demanda presentada este jueves, los ciudadanos estadounidenses de origen palestino acusan a [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":27206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[318,320,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-27205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usworld","8":"tag-demanda","9":"tag-departamento-de-estado-demandado","10":"tag-estadounidenses-de-origen-palestino"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27205"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27226,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27205\/revisions\/27226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}