Biden administration faces legal challenge from Jewish Americans over sanctions regime.

A federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that the Biden administration is illegally imposing sanctions on American citizens residing in Israel and the West Bank.

On Thursday, a federal lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Inc. (NJAC), Zell Aron & Co., and Marcus & Marcus LLC, challenging the Biden administration's Executive Order (EO) 14115.

The lawsuit is the second of its kind against what lawyers argue are unconstitutional and unprecedented sanctions against Jewish people living in Israel and the West Bank, including American citizens like plaintiffs Levi Yitzchak Pilant and Issachar Manne.

In February 2024, President Biden signed an executive order imposing sanctions on individuals who were undermining peace, security, and stability in the West Bank following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

Biden stated in the EO announcement that the escalating extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction in the West Bank have reached intolerable levels and pose a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank, Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region.

The sanctioned individuals have been unable to carry out basic life activities due to their bank accounts being frozen and credit cards being canceled. Critics argue that this move by the administration enables it to sanction Jews in Israel who oppose its policies, which they believe is a violation of the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens in Israel and their supporters in America.

The EO 14115 imposes financial sanctions on individuals who act against the Biden administration's policy in Judea and Samaria, but the lawsuit claims that only Jews have been targeted.

Mark Goldfeder, CEO of NJAC, stated that applying a double standard to punish only Jews for being Jewish in a place where they are not welcome is not acceptable and has a derogatory name.

The lawsuit accuses the State Department of failing to investigate allegations against Israel, instead relying heavily on biased reports from anti-Israel groups with a history of making false claims.

On Aug. 28, 2024, Pilant was penalized for engaging in "malicious activities beyond his authority" such as leading a group of armed settlers to set up roadblocks and patrols to pursue and attack Palestinians in their lands and forcefully expel them from their lands.

The lawsuit claims that he has never committed violence against Palestinians.

The lawsuit claims that the accusations made by the State Department are entirely false and seem to be based on a "comprehensive dossier" submitted by an organization with ties to extremist groups, which failed to get the last name of the plaintiff right.

The lawsuit pointed out that the State Department recognized Pilant as a legitimate security official of the Israeli government, authorized to safeguard the safety of Israeli citizens, and was actively serving in the army while carrying out patrols and roadblocks as part of a government assignment.

The "Manne Farm Outpost" was also penalized by the State Department on July 11, 2024, for setting up the farm on land owned by the Palestinian community. The reason given was that settlers from this outpost frequently harass community shepherds and prevent their access to pastureland through violent acts.

Despite his lawyers' claims that he has never taken or sought to take land owned by private Palestinians or designated as private by the Israeli government, he maintains a policy of grazing his 130 sheep in areas not owned by individuals, whether Israeli or Palestinian.

As a result of the sanctions, both Pilant and Manne have experienced financial difficulties, including frozen bank accounts and credit cards, inability to make mortgage payments, and harm to their finances and reputations.

A group of Israelis previously filed a lawsuit against the administration challenging the constitutionality of the first-of-its-kind sanction regime, but this is the first challenge to the sanctions order brought by sanctioned individuals. The plaintiffs are U.S. citizens who allege that the sanctions violate their Due Process and Equal Protection rights.

Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at George Mason University Law School and former NJAC legal consultant and member of the legal team in the first case challenging sanctions, stated that the government's actions are based on a startling notion that certain land is inherently "Palestinian."

"For no reason, American Jews are having their bank accounts frozen and their lives disrupted because of accusations from those who believe they have no right to reside in the West Bank," he stated.

Previously, Kontorovich maintained that the definition of "violence" is determined by anti-Israel groups and can be used to label Jews who defend themselves against Palestinian attackers in an "arbitrary" manner by utilizing data from the website of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), categorizing acts of self-defense by Jews and anti-terror operations by the Israel Defense Forces as settler violence, as per the lawsuit.

The UN labeled the Palestinian who was shot dead after breaking onto a Jewish farm in the northern West Bank armed with a knife and explosives as a victim of "settler violence."

The lawsuit highlights the fact that thousands of Palestinians have committed terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians, which pose a threat to the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank.

In 2024, there were 231 successful Palestinian attempts on Jewish life, resulting in 46 killed and 337 wounded, according to the lawsuit. These attacks included 689 firing attacks, 326 explosives, 13 stabbings, 9 driving attacks, 2 suicide attacks, and 1 kidnapping.

NJAC's litigation counsel, Matthew Mainen, stated that the Biden administration's "lazy and politically motivated EO jeopardizes Israel's security by imposing sanctions on individuals such as Levi Yitzhak Pilant, an IDF officer who serves as the first line of defense in his community, and Issachar Manne, a Jew who bravely defends himself and his land against terrorist attacks."

The administration's failure to verify the citizenship of individuals before sanctioning them as foreign persons reveals a bitter motive that we are now working to correct.

The State Department did not respond to Planet Chronicle Digital's request for comment.