A local civil rights group is preparing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its support for Israeli war crimes in Lebanon – a legal move that aims to compel the US government to follow its own laws when it comes to foreign aid and armed conflict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dearborn-based Arab American Civil Rights League (ACRL) announced its intention to sue the government in April as Israel intensified its attacks in Lebanon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the ceasefire reached on April 16, the Israeli military has been systemically destroying border towns in south Lebanon – blowing up homes, schools and all elements that sustain life – in an effort to create a “buffer zone” of ethnically cleansed land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tens of thousands of people in the Detroit area – including prominent officials and community leaders – hail from these Lebanese towns and villages that are being erased off the map, most notably the city of Bint Jbeil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ACRL Chairman Nasser Beydoun said his own family is experiencing the loss and devastation with buildings owned by his family, including his grandparents’ homes destroyed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Lebanese Americans have watched their homes destroyed, their land taken and their future erased \u2014 without accountability. This must end today,” Beydoun said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The planned lawsuit was ironically announced at the Bint Jbeil Cultural Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel has been trying to replicate its Gaza playbook in Lebanon, using mass destruction as a tool of demographic engineering to prevent displaced residents from returning to their hometowns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The fate of southern Lebanon will be the same as that of Gaza,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said last month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leahy Law<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And the Israeli military is not carrying out these atrocities alone, Lebanese American activists have argued. Its campaign of annihilating entire towns is happening with the help of the US government and American weapons manufacturers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the start of the war on Gaza, which has morphed into a regional conflict, the US government has supplied Israel with at least $23 billion in aid. And much of the Israeli military’s bombs and hardware comes from the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Washington has regulations, such as the Leahy Law, that prohibit funding foreign military units engaged in gross human rights violations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawsuit will also invoke the right of US citizens to have their well-being properties protected abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It would be one of the first of its kind in the country to bring the class action against the United States government, specifically the Secretary of State [Marco] Rubio, for allowing this kind of conduct to happen,” ACRL founder Nabih Ayad said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that arms manufacturers could also be liable for violations, alleging that they knew their weapons “are going to be used to destroy innocent people’s homes, not military action”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wayne County Commissioner Sam Baydoun, a native of south Lebanon, also weighed in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “What’s happening in South Lebanon is catastrophic. Villages and cities like Bint Jbeil are looking like Hiroshima,” he said, referring to the Japanese city where the US dropped a nuclear bomb during World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Trump has repeatedly voiced support for efforts to reach a peace deal in Lebanon, claiming that he aims to “make Lebanon great again”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But his administration has continued to provide weapons and diplomatic cover for the Israeli war machine destroying the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Ethnic cleansing campaign’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lebanese Americans are making the case that stopping Israel’s campaign to raze south Lebanon is not only about foreign policy, but also about the rights of US citizens here at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The United States has always stood on principle that it protects its citizens no matter where they are in the world; that principle cannot be selective, cannot depend on politics, and cannot stop when American citizens are harmed by actions of a so-called ally,” Nasser Beydoun said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond the destruction of the homes of Lebanese Americans, Israeli forces and settlers regularly shoot and kill US citizens, especially in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2024, Israeli bombardment of Lebanon killed Dearborn resident Kamel Ahmad Jawad, a 56-year-old Lebanese-American father of four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the news conference announcing the planned lawsuit, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib explained her War Powers Resolution bill that aims to stop unauthorized US involvement in the Israeli war on Lebanon, including targeting assistance and intelligence sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The United States right now is assisting in this destruction through the weapon sales and intelligence logistics they offer, as well as diplomatic cover,” Tlaib said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Congress has the power and duty to put an end to this illegal invasion and what I call an ethnic cleansing campaign.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The resolution is unlikely to pass in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, but it could add pressure against the Trump administration and highlight the dwindling support for Israel in Congress.<\/p>\n