From the Palestine Chronicle editorial board 
“The government is using its secret, illegal list against Dr. Abu Irshaid, Mr. Zeidan, and other innocent Americans not for security reasons, but because federal agents are refusing to lawfully exercise their constitutional rights.”
The Muslim civil rights organization Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has filed a lawsuit against the FBI and other government agencies for targeting two Palestinian Americans because of their pro-Palestinian activism.
The organization announced on Monday that it would take legal action against the federal government “for placing a Palestinian American on the no-fly list and confiscating the electronic device of another while interrogating him about his legitimate organization against Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip.”
“Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid and Mr. Mustafa Zeidan are both U.S. citizens of Palestinian descent. Neither Dr. Abu Irshaid nor Mr. Zeidan have ever been charged or convicted of a violent crime,” CAIR said in a statement.
“But recently the federal government put Dr. Abu Irshaid and Mr. Zeidan on a secret list. One of them was subjected to a humiliating process in which he was arrested at the border, interrogated and had his phone confiscated. The other was also denied any permission to fly.”
Because Dr. Abu Irshaid is on the government’s “secret list,” he is detained by federal officials “every time he crosses the border.”
He is being asked “humiliating questions about his legitimate ties and his work as head of a nonprofit organization that advocates for Palestinian rights.”
Phone confiscated
Abu Irshaid’s phone was seized and agents “continue to retain Dr. Abu Irshaid’s cell phone despite multiple attempts … through his attorneys to retrieve it,” CAIR said.
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Zeidan travels to Jordan several times a year to visit and care for his sick mother, the organization said.
After purchasing a ticket to visit her in May of this year, he was banned from boarding the plane “due to his status on the government’s secret list.”
The government has given Zeidan “no explanation” as to why he was placed on the no-fly list after he was able to fly abroad without problems for years, CAIR stressed.
“For Mr. Zeidan, only one thing has changed in recent months: he organizes weekly protests to demand an end to Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and the United States’ complicity in that genocide,” the organization added.
“The government is using its secret, illegal list against Dr. Abu Irshaid, Mr. Zeidan, and other innocent Americans not for security reasons, but because federal agents are refusing to lawfully exercise their constitutional rights,” it said.
Constitutional reasons
Since October 7, CAIR said, the station has received reports from Americans across the country “who have been questioned and harassed by federal law enforcement officials” because of their activism in support of Palestine and against US complicity in the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip.
“This lawsuit is one of the first to challenge the FBI’s apparent decision to target its vast apparatus at innocent people who advocate for Palestine and criticize Israeli violence in Gaza,” the organization said.
The statement said it “challenges the mistreatment of these Palestinian-American activists on constitutional grounds.”
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Ongoing genocide
Israel is ignoring a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and is facing international criticism for its ongoing brutal offensive on Gaza.
Tel Aviv is currently facing charges of genocide against the Palestinians before the International Court of Justice since it launched a devastating war against Gaza last October.
According to the Gaza Strip Health Ministry, 40,005 Palestinians were killed and 92,401 injured. In addition, at least 11,000 people are missing, presumed to have perished under the rubble of their homes throughout the Gaza Strip.
According to Israel, 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the flood relief operation in Al-Aqsa on October 7. Israeli media reported that many Israelis were killed by friendly fire that day.
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Palestinian and international organizations say the majority of the dead and injured are women and children.
The Israeli war led to an acute famine, especially in the north of the Gaza Strip, and caused the deaths of many Palestinians, especially children.
The Israeli aggression also resulted in the forced displacement of nearly two million people from across the Gaza Strip. The vast majority of those displaced were forced to the densely populated southern city of Rafah, near the Egyptian border. It was the largest mass exodus from Palestine since the Nakba of 1948.
As the war progressed, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began to move from the south to central Gaza in search of safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
