US weapon companies with business ties to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, and who benefit from the Israeli genocide, should be sued for complicity in crimes against the Palestinian people.

Since 1952, the German government has paid over $80 billion (€71 billion) in compensation and social welfare payments to Jews who suffered under the Nazi regime. Why should Palestinians not be entitled to the same right to address their grievances? We all know the saying, "What is good for the goose is good for the gander.”

In that spirit, I am seeking the names of United States citizens who lost loved ones in the latest genocide in Gaza and Palestine and/or have members of their families injured as a result of the Israeli use of US-manufactured weapons. For example, Lockheed Martin and Google are two top US companies that currently provide weapon technology to the state of Israel. These companies should be held accountable under US laws.

The twenty-six-year-old Leahy Law is among the most important laws regarding military aid and human rights. Leahy Law bars the United States from providing assistance to foreign military units that have committed gross violations of human rights such as torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killing, or rape.

Lockheed Martin, for example, is the world's largest weapons manufacturer, supplying Israel with F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has been using extensively to bomb indiscriminately in Gaza. According to the Ministry of Defense, the collaboration between Lockheed Martin and Israeli industries exceeds $4 billion.

Google is another giant US company that provides Israel advanced AI capabilities, which harvest data for facial recognition and object tracking as part of Project Nimbus. Google employees based in the United States have staged protests at the tech giant’s offices in New York City, California, and Seattle to oppose a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government.

Known as Project Nimbus, the joint contract between Google and Amazon signed in 2021 aims to provide cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI), and other technology services to the Israeli government and its military, which has faced condemnation for its war on Gaza, described by United Nations experts and several countries as a “genocide,” according to Al Jazeera (May 24, 2024 report).

So far, nearly 40,000 Palestinians (mostly civilians) have been killed, and another nearly 90,000 injured in Gaza since the latest Israeli assault. Additionally, a recent report from the aid organization Save the Children estimates that more than 20,000 Palestinian children are missing. It is critical at this juncture to expose those who aid Israel in its genocide and hold them legally accountable.

Thalif Deen, who served as former deputy news editor of the Sri Lanka Daily News and who has been covering the U.N. since the late 1970s, wrote a piece in The Palestine Chronicle on July 23, 2024, in which he eloquently argued that "these companies must be named, shamed, boycotted, and held accountable in every possible way. They must understand that there are legal repercussions for their actions."

It is common knowledge that the families of Jewish Americans, as well as Jews from western nations who died fighting with the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in Lebanon and Palestine, who are better known as "lone soldiers," have sued Iran and the Palestinian Authority (PA), and were able to collect settlements that were applied against US aid to the PA and/or against frozen assets in US banks (in the case of Iran).

Despite the sadistic genocide that Israel continues to inflict on Gazans, last Monday, ADL and Crowell & Moring LLP saw fit to file a federal lawsuit on behalf of more than 125 Israelis who claim to be the victims of Hamas’ Al Aqsa Flood Operation, alleging Iran, Syria, and North Korea provided material support to Hamas to commit the atrocities. This is mind-boggling, to say the least! It would be a travesty of justice if the victims of Israeli war crimes are held to different standards and were not able to claim reparations.

With that in mind, it is fair to argue that Palestinian Americans whose family members were killed or injured during the Israeli genocide should be entitled to compensation. Therefore, I am seeking the names of those US citizens who lost loved ones in occupied Palestine, or whose family members have been injured or harmed due to the use of US weapons provided to Israel to carry out its genocide.

The goal is to hold those companies legally accountable for their complicity in the genocide. The names will not be publicized and there will be no cost or fees involved. The purpose is to tell those greedy US corporations that their reckless actions have violated US laws, and harmed and devastated the lives of innocent American citizens forever.

The names of the world's most powerful companies, such as Google and Lockheed Martin, should not discourage those who are seeking justice. Two years ago, Google was ordered to pay $118 million to settle a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit that included around 15,500 women (via Bloomberg).

Also, the U.S. Department of Justice said last June that Lockheed Martin has agreed to pay $70 million to settle allegations that they overcharged the U.S. Navy for spare parts related to training crafts. I still believe justice in America is blind.

That being said, I urge readers who are U.S. citizens to please send me your name, contact information, and a brief description of your family members killed/injured as well as their names, gender, ages, and place of residence. Once the list is completed, it will be turned over to a team of legal experts who will use the information to file a class action lawsuit in the US court of law.

Mahmoud El-Yousseph is a Palestinian freelance writer and retired USAF veteran who lives in Westerville, Ohio. He can be reached at: [email protected]