A group of Palestinians led by professional provocateur and propagandist Bassem Al-Tamimi has filed suit against a slew of Americans, American businesses, American organizations, international businesses and Israeli entities. The Complaint is embedded at the bottom of this post.
Altogether nineteen Plaintiffs have brought claims against fifty-three defendants. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are Martin F. McMahon, a colleague in his law firm, and Sameer Jarrah, who claims a license to practice law in Jordan.
Al-Tamimi is a familiar figure. He is at the heart of LI’s ongoing battle with Ithica, New York’s public school system (where he encouraged third-graders to become “freedom fighters for Palestine”), peddles the blood libel that Israel harvests and sells Palestinians’ organs, and uses his own daughter (and other children) as props in his war against Israel (more here).
The Complaint is 186 pages, plus exhibits, and will take some time to study. The predicate for the Complaint, though, is summarized at Paragraph 87:
(a) the settlement enterprise has been an intentional, profitable, and ongoing activity for at least 40 years; (b) it entailed the expulsion of approximately 400,000 Palestinians from the OPT; (c) it also resulted in the demolition or confiscation of 49,000 Palestinian homes; (d) without the massive financial assistance provided by U.S. donors/entities, settlement expansion would have been impossible; (e) in providing that critical funding, U.S. donors/entities have violated numerous Treasury tax-exemption regulations and at least eight federal criminal statutes; (f) as a result of funding that criminal activity, they are all subject to criminal prosecution for their money laundering and arms-trafficking activity; and finally (g) at least eight U.S. Presidents, their Secretaries of State, and congressional leadership have all unequivocally and repeatedly condemned settlement expansion and its violent consequences for almost 40 years.
The claims are broad: Civil conspiracy; war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide; aggravated and ongoing trespass; RICO, and; war crime of pillage. Even aside from the lack of any factual support, Plaintiffs confront serious technical and legal challenges which we will explore in later posts.
Readers should view this primarily as a political lawsuit. Much like Tamimi’s use of children to confront Israeli soldiers in order to create viral media images:
Stay tuned.
Bassem Al-Tamimi v Adelson Complaint
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