Jewish legal organizations have filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government on behalf of American citizens living in Judea and Samaria and targeted by the sanctions

Just days before his term ends, President Joe Biden and top U.S. officials are being sued by US citizens living in Judea and Samaria following U.S. government sanctions on some residents of the area.

Jewish legal organizations, including The National Jewish Advocacy Center, together with two law firms, filed the lawsuit in a Columbia court on behalf of several American citizens residing in Judea and Samaria. Among the plaintiffs are Yitzhak Levi Filant and Isaschar Manne, both American citizens from Judea and Samaria.

The U.S. government sanctioned Philant in August 2024 for "malign activities outside the scope of his authority," adding that in February 2024, he led a group of armed settlers to set up roadblocks and conduct patrols to pursue and attack Palestinians in their lands and "forcefully expel them from their lands." Filant's lawyers claim he has never acted violently against Palestinians, and the accusations are unfounded.

Manne was sanctioned for "being a foreign person who is responsible for or complicit in, or for having directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in planning, ordering, otherwise directing, or participating in an act of violence or threat of violence targeting civilians, affecting the West Bank; and pursuant to section 1(a)(i)(B)(4) for being responsible for or complicit in, or for having directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in planning, ordering, otherwise directing, or participating in seizure or dispossession of property by private actors, affecting the West Bank," according to the US State Department.

His farm was also sanctioned, according to the State Department, "pursuant to section 1(a)(iv) of E.O. 14115 for being owned or controlled by, or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Manne; and pursuant to section 1(a)(i)(B)(4) for being responsible for or complicit in, or for having directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in planning, ordering, otherwise directing, or participating in seizure or dispossession of property by private actors, affecting the West Bank. Manne founded and established Manne farm outpost in the South Hebron Hills in 2020 after seizing 150 hectares of land, this number has nearly doubled. Manne farm outpost was established on pastureland belonging to the Palestinian community, and settlers from this outpost regularly attack community shepherds and prevent their access to pastureland through acts of violence."

The lawsuit states, "The allegations by the State Department are completely false, and appear to be based on a 'comprehensive file' submitted just days before the sanction by Democracy for Arab World Now, an organization whose board members have ties to radical Muslim Brotherhood elements and have even praised Hamas, and which failed to correctly spell the plaintiff Filant's surname."

Mark Goldfeder, CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, stated, "When you apply double standards to sanction only Jews, and when you penalize Jews for simply being Jews in places you don't want them to be, there's a word for that, and it's not a nice word."

***

Source: INN