A group of anti-Israel activists has been sued over the Chicago O’Hare airport blockade that left thousands of motorists trapped in their cars earlier this year.
Apparently, they thought that wreaking havoc with everyday Americans’ travel plans would drum up support to “free Palestine.”
But the travelers who had to abandon their cars and drag their luggage to the airport so they wouldn’t miss their flights weren’t won over.
They were furious:
Earlier this week, the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute (HLLI) announced a class action lawsuit against the activists on behalf of the victims of the nearly three-hour traffic stoppage. They seek redress for their client, Christopher Manhart—and everyone else stuck in their cars that day. Manhart missed his flight and important meetings because of the blockade, according to the lawsuit.
The Chicago demonstration was one of many carried out by anti-Israel activists in major sites across the country on the morning of April 15th, including the Golden Gate Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, and Seattle-Tacoma Airport, as we covered here.
Those demonstrations were part of a broadscale operation—an international organizing effort called the “A15 Action,” the lawsuit says. The stated goal of the A15 plan was to “cause pain to the economy” and “to disrupt and blockade economic logistical hubs and the flow of capital—all in support of “Palestinian liberation” following the Hamas massacre on October 7th.
According to the complaint, the A15 campaign drew support from Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The lawsuit explains how, while Hamas is fighting one battle on the ground in Gaza, it’s fighting another—a propaganda battle—on the international stage.
The anti-Israel activists groups named in the lawsuit are allegedly Hamas’s propaganda arm in the United States. They hope to generate international publicity against the “Zionist war machine'” in the wake of October 7th.
The groups include American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), WESPAC Foundation, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). According to the lawsuit, they planned, advertised, and coordinated the Chicago blockade.
The lawsuit also names individuals involved in blocking access to O’Hare. One is Jinan Chehade, a Georgetown Law School graduate who came into the spotlight when the prominent law firm, Foley & Lardner, rescinded her job offer after she voiced support for the Hamas massacre of innocent Israeli citizens. An active member of SJP, Chehade was a primary organizer of the blockade, according to the lawsuit, and used her own body to help stop the flow of traffic around the airport, for which she was later arrested.
And then there is Simone Tucker, a student organizer for JVP in Chicago. She also allegedly organized and participated in the blockade, later bragging: “We made our point. We stood in solidarity with our comrades in Palestine, and we disrupted business as usual.”
Taken together, these groups and individuals were allegedly part of the international propaganda war against “the Zionist entity.”
But, the lawsuit says, it’s a war Manhart and the other stranded motorists had nothing to do with and didn’t ask to be dragged into. The anti-Israel activists forced the plaintiffs to participate in their demonstration by falsely imprisoning them in their cars, they say in their complaint, seeking damages and an injunction to make sure it never happens again.
And in this way, the lawsuit shows an avenue of relief from the harm caused by the Chicago demonstrators’ “tortious behavior masqerading as protest.” Protestors “cease being protestors when they use force to block expressways full of bystanders trapped on the roads to create a massive public nuisance,” the lawsuit says. “The freedom of association protected by the First Amendment does not extend to joining with others for the purpose of depriving third parties of their lawful rights.”
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