WASHINGTON Ñ American-Palestinians have filted a class-action
suit against Israel for the use of U.S. weapons in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip.
The suit is being brought on behalf of 19 U.S. citizens with families in
the Palestinian Authority. In a brief filed with U.S. federal district court
in Washington D.C., the families assert that Israel has violated
international law in attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians are also suing U.S. defense contractors for the Israeli
use of their weapons in the war against the PA. The suit names most of the
major weapons contractors that supply aircraft and subsystems to Israel, Middle East Newsline reported.
The Palestinian suit also names U.S. President George Bush, Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, members of the former Israeli Cabinet and
Israeli military officers. The defendants are moving to have the suit
dismissed.
The suit was filed in July and will be heard soon. A jury is soon to be
selected.
The Palestinians are being represented by Stanley Cohen, a New
York-based attorney who defended Hamas leader Mussa Abu Marzouk in 1995. The
United States deported Abu Marzouk to Lebanon after he was found to have
violated the terms of his residency.
Cohen was detained in February as he tried to leave Israel, where he was
collecting evidence for the suit. The attorney said Israeli authorities
confiscated his personal computer at Ben-Gurion International Airport after
a two-week stay.
The attorney said he was filing a complaint with the State Department
for the Israeli seizure of his computer. An Israeli attorney, Lea Tsemel,
has filed a petition to Israel's High Court banning security authorities
from making any use of the data in Cohen's computer.
