Nine Palestinian-Americans who had been “stuck” in Gaza sued the American government which, they claimed, had failed in what they said was its duty to conduct an “emergency rescue” of the nine. Now their suit has been thrown out. More on their claim, and on the judgement just rendered, can be found here: “US judge dismisses lawsuit by Palestinian Americans, family members trapped in Gaza,” Reuters, January 8, 2026:
A federal judge dismissed on Thursday a lawsuit demanding that the US government conduct emergency rescues of Palestinian Americans and family members who are trapped in Gaza and trying to escape hardships caused by the war between Israel and Hamas.
Chief Judge Virginia Kendall of the US District Court in Chicago said she lacked the power and tools to evaluate “delicate foreign policy decisions” belonging to the government’s Executive Branch, while expressing sympathy with “the impossible positions in which many of the plaintiffs have found themselves.”
The judge also said the available evidence showed the US government had developed an evacuation plan, and that the nine plaintiffs had either been evacuated or rejected offers that did not cover immediate family members….
So apparently the US government had indeed not only made an evacuation plan, but had evacuated some of those nine plaintiffs. As for those still in Gaza, that is their own fault. They had rejected American efforts to extract them from Gaza unless members of their immediate family in Gaza could also be evacuated. The American government has nothing to apologize for.
It is the executive branch of the American government that is in charge of war, war zones, and the evacuation of American citizens and permanent residents from those zones. The judiciary lacks the authority, Judge Kendall noted, to determine “when, how, and under what circumstances” evacuations from war zones should take place.
And most damning to the case, all nine plaintiffs had either already been successfully evacuated from Gaza — so had no case — or they had refused to be evacuated unless the American government met their demand of also evacuating their immediate family members, something the government was not prepared to do.
Lawyers from the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group, which represents the plaintiffs, had no immediate comment. The US Department of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nihad Awad and Ibrahim Hooper must be very disappointed. They were expecting the government to roll over, and possibly were anticipating a fat financial settlement for their clients. But to their great dismay, the suit was thrown out. Judge Kendall put the kibosh on it, and justice was done. One more loss in the courts for the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). There have been so many.
CryHavoc says
If you are an *** – American, then your first allegiance is to ***. These 9 people are where they shou!d be.
Troybeam says
Time to deport the rest of them.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Sorry, if US citizens, ignoring the advice of the State Department, decide to go outside the US to any place X, then it’s not the responsibility of the US government to pull them out of there
Why were they in Gaza? I daresay it’s not b’cos they didn’t follow the news, but to the contrary, that they followed it too closely. Otherwise, who in their right mind would go there? Heck, over the last 2 years, except for people who went to Israel to either fight alongside the IDF or provide support functions to it, most people even avoided going to Israel b’cos of the war, and the expectation that Hamas or Hizbullah rockets might land on them
Another thing: I don’t think someone’s life is more sacred just b’cos of the passports that s/he happens to hold. For instance, unlike many Republicans, I never dinged Obama for droning Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen just b’cos by accident of birth, he happened to be an “American citizen”. In real life, he was a Yemeni jihadist, nothing more, nothing less. If it was okay to drone Yemeni jihadists – which I think it was, regardless of who was in the White House – then it was okay to drone Yemeni jihadists even if they were lucky enough to have US passports. In fact, this is one of the few things that Obama did that I supported
Same thing here – these “Palestinian-Americans” happen to be Israel-hating Arabs from Transjordanian territory who somehow managed to get US passports. Since they have the latter, they should be able to live happily in Chicago or Detroit or wherever, and go about their lives w/o bellyaching about Israel. Since they can’t, let them be stuck in Gaza and let the IDF take care of them however it chooses
somehistory says
Agreed. Just as a drunken house rep driving home from a party is no more deserving of the police officer saying, ‘ok, just be careful, ma’am’ than is a drunken prostitute driving home who is booked for driving under the influence.
Those muzzies who demanded that the U.S. put American military at risk to bring them back here to the States….taking them out of Israel…..are not better than other muzzie terrorists.
And demanding that their relatives also be brought here….what arrogance. I hope they were all left behind.
Too bad ratshida tlaib wasn’t there to see her granny and demand to bring her here.
Hoi Polloi says
I agree with both of you. Allowing this lawfare to proceed would set a very dangerous precedent. I’ve never agreed that leaving this country by personal choice grants anyone the full protection of the US government. That would require that citizens who don’t drop into conflict zones for their own personal causes, or who don’t break the laws of other countries within their borders, be sent to die to rescue less honorable people. For what it’s worth, I believe Brittney Griner should have served her full term. We have the needs of better citizens to attend to.
somehistory says
I agree, HP. with your comment.
And griner committed a crime and should have paid the cost herself.
Had she committed a crime in the U.S. and been sent to prison, would the same government fight for her release?
Hoi Polloi says
Exactly, sh.
Larry Estavan says
” . . . There have been so many.”
Truer words were never spoken –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMNqiSKvuIQ&list=PLlXFRJgYud-Y2yhdgqWSI_5cINjYJdu-A
Jamie says
WOW! We need to get Chief Judge Virginia Kendall off the bench! Can you imagine a judge actually following the Constitution.
Noah Andeark says
CAIR is a terror organization. Its officers, members, and supporters are terrorists. They should be treated as terrorists.
Doug Hooper and his muslima Awad are what we call “homosexuals”. They enjoy sex with each other, with typically Doug being the “bottom”, and Awad the “top”.