The State Department has moved to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton willfully "disregarded congressional safeguards and transparency requirements" regarding U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA), potentially allowing funds to flow to terrorist groups such as Hamas.
The suit, which was originally filed by 24 Americans living in Israel, alleges that Clinton, the State Department, and White House have "not been complying with the regulations and reporting obligations" governing the more than $500 million in aid that America gives to the PA annually, according to an Israeli law group.
"As a result of this non-compliance, U.S. funds have been flowing to terror groups like Hamas, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Palestine Liberation Front," according to the Israel Law Center, which is handling the lawsuit.
The Department of Justice moved to dismiss the suit last week on the grounds that D.C. courts have no jurisdiction in the matter. The complainants, they argue, are suing the government based primarily on disagreements over U.S. foreign policy and can therefore prove no real injury.
"The apparent impetus for plaintiffs’ challenge is their strongly felt disagreement with United States foreign policy—a disagreement that pervades nearly every page of their [original] complaint," the DOJ argued in its motion to dismiss. "Such disagreement, no matter how passionately held, is insufficient as a matter of law to establish constitutional injury."
The plaintiff’s argument that they "live in fear of Palestinian terrorist attacks" is not grounds for a lawsuit challenging U.S. aid to the PA, the DOJ maintained.
"Without minimizing the threat of terrorism in Israel, Plaintiffs’ fear of the possibility of a future terrorist attack is ‘too speculative to satisfy the well-established requirement that threatened injury must be ‘certainly impending,’" according to the motion.
"Fear of a speculative future event, such as a possible terrorist attack, is the type of ‘conjectural or hypothetical’ interest that is insufficient to establish standing," the DOJ said.
Israel Law Center director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said the government’s motion was expected, but unjustified. The threat of terrorism is real and ongoing, she said. For example, Palestinian terrorists fired three rockets at Israel on Monday, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"With rockets being fired everyday out of Gaza and the Palestinian rioting escalating in the West Bank, everyone in Israel is afraid the Palestinians will soon launch another intifada," Darshan-Leitner told the Washington Free Beacon in an email.
"Hundreds of Americans were killed and injured during the last intifada by Palestinian terrorism and the rockets and suicide bombers make no distinctions based on citizenship," she said. "The very reason Congress enacted these restrictions on aid were to safeguard against a very real threat to civilian life and now comes the government saying that this fear is speculative."
Darshan-Leitner maintained that the DOJ and State Department are trying to avoid explaining the rationale for U.S. aid to the PA.
"They would much rather have the proceeding thrown out on a legal technicality then have to explain the reasonableness or legality of their actions," she said. "Even more so when what they are doing is violating clear restrictions placed on their actions by the Congress."
The Israel Law Center will soon file a response to the DOJ’s motion to dismiss, Darshan-Leitner said.
"No one is challenging the president's foreign policy powers nor the basic policy of aid to the Palestinians, but simply the failure to comply with the transparency and reporting regulations the Congress put in place as safeguards on Palestinian aid," she said.
The plaintiffs in the case are all Americans who are living in Israel in close proximity to the Palestinian territories.
Their original lawsuit argued that Clinton and the State Department violated federal law by failing to implement "transparency safeguards" on U.S. aid to the PA, potentially allowing U.S. dollars to pay for terrorist activities.
The State Department "authorized, sanctioned, encouraged, and/or facilitated funding to the Palestinian Authority without imposing the controls and oversight mandated by federal statute," the complaint said. "In addition, defendants have ignored reporting requirements and allowed the Palestinian Authority to evade transparency safeguards mandated by American law."
"In so doing, they have allowed federal dollars into the hands of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (both recognized foreign terrorist organizations), the Palestinian Liberation Organization (a terrorist organization), employees of the Palestinian Authority who are barred access to federal funds pursuant to federal statute, and other supporters of terrorism against civilians who live in Israel," the complaint argued.
Two of the 24 Americans who initiated the lawsuit have been victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks.
"All of the plaintiffs live in fear of Palestinian terrorist attacks," the lawsuit said.
DOJ lawyer Bryan Diederich, who is working on the case, declined comment, saying it is the department’s policy to not comment on ongoing cases. A DOJ spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the case.
U.S. lawmakers have sought to eliminate funding the PA in recent weeks.
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) recently introduced a bill that would cut aid until the PA "recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state" and cuts off all ties with the terror group Hamas.