Dearborn couple trapped in Gaza pleads for help: 'We are scared'
A Dearborn couple trapped in Gaza is asking the U.S. for help to get back home, according to family members and a lawsuit filed Friday.
Zakaria Alarayashi and his wife, Laila Alarayshi, are currently in Gaza, which is facing Israeli military strikes after Hamas attacked Israel last week. They allege the U.S. government has failed to evacuate them and other Palestinian Americans from Gaza while it works to rescue Americans trapped in Israel, accusing U.S. officials of discriminating against them, showing "disparate treatment."
The lawsuit was filed by civil rights attorneys on their behalf in U.S. District Court in Detroit against the State and Defense departments. A spokesman for the Defense Department referred questions from the Free Press about the case to the State and Justice Departments. A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. is working to secure the safe exit of U.S. citizens from Gaza.
"We have informed U.S. citizens in Gaza with whom we are in contact that if they assess it to be safe, they may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing - there may be very little notice if the crossing opens and it may only open for a limited time," the spokesperson said in an email. The department added that U.S. citizens who need assistance should complete an online crisis intake form on travel.state.gov.
"They just hit the house next to us," Zakaria Alarayshi said in a voicemail left with Mariam Charara, executive director of the Dearborn-based Arab American Civil Rights League (ACRL), according to the lawsuit. "We are scared. We can't go to the bathroom. We can't go anywhere. We don't have electricity, we're without water, there's nothing. I think we are going to die before we leave."
The Alarayshis were on vacation in Gaza visiting family members and were expected to come back in a few weeks. They are one of a number of Americans of Palestinian ancestry who are in Gaza, said Arab American advocates.
"What was meant to be a peaceful vacation has turned into an unexpected ordeal as I'm caught up in this conflict right under the war zone," Zakaria Alarayshi told the Arab American Civil Rights League, according to a letter the group sent to U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan.
On Saturday, the family of the Alarayshis gathered outside the U.S. district courthouse, along with the league to voice their concerns. Their son Yahya Alarayshi and his wife, Lisa Alarayshi, spoke to reporters about their worries for the couple.
"Our family is hurting," Lisa Alarayshi said, overcome with emotion as she spoke with her husband and children next to her. "My heart is constantly beating as hard as it can."
Lisa Alarayshi said that she is descended from the people who arrived on the Mayflower ship escaping religious persecution in Europe. She said that people who are Palestinian and Muslim should not be discriminated against by the U.S. government.
"When you ... go on vacation, and something terrible happens and you don't feel obligated to pick them up, that is not right," she said. "We should save every man that is ours. You don't leave people behind."
She added that "just because people come from an area, or from a religion, where some people are painted as horrible and evil and terrorists does not mean that every person that belongs to that space is evil, or shares any kind of evil motivation. And to lump everyone into the same pot, and say they are all evil. It's not right."
More: Threat against Palestinian Americans leads to arrest amid fear in Arab, Jewish communities
The lawsuit asserts that Palestinian Americans are a protected class, but that "the State Department failed to protect U.S. citizen Plaintiffs when it failed and or refused to include them in its existing plans to evacuate other classes from the same war region."
The attorneys are asking the court for a temporary restraining order to provide immediate relief.
"The U.S. Government, while denying its citizens trapped in Gaza any evacuation services, has offered humanitarian flights to U.S. Citizens out of Israel," read the lawsuit filed by attorneys James Allen, chair of Arab American Civil Rights League, and Zachary Hallman.
In contrast, "the U.S. has not evacuated a single citizen from Gaza since the commencement of hostilities on October 10, 2023," the lawsuit said.
The U.S. has a history of evacuating Americans in other conflicts over the decades in Vietnam, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, and other nations, the complaint said. In 2006, some Arab American advocates expressed similar concerns over Americans being trapped in Lebanon during Hizballah's war with Israel, recalled Nasser Beydoun, a Dearborn businessman and U.S. Senate candidate who joined Ayad Saturday outside the courthouse. In July 2006, Ayad and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee filed suit against the State and Defense departments on behalf of Americans visiting in Lebanon who said the U.S. failed to help them evacuate.
More: Metro Detroit Arab, Jewish communities mourn, rally amid violence in Middle East
"Protecting the lives of our fellow Americans is our most urgent priority in this crisis," attorney Nabih Ayad, founder of the Arab American Civil Rights League, said in a joint statement with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "We call on our community and the nation to join us in unity, for together, we can ensure the safe return of our citizens."
More: Thousands pack Michigan synagogue to support Israel as Whitmer rallies crowd
There are 8,929 residents in Michigan with Palestinian ancestry, out of 174,887 nationally, according to 2020 census data released last month. Many of them worry about family and others in Gaza and other Palestinian areas in conflict with Israel. A news conference was held Wednesday with Muslim and Arab American leaders at the largest Palestinian-majority mosque in Michigan, Islamic Center of Detroit, calling for an end to the war and help for Palestinians in Gaza.
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com, Facebook.com/nwarikoo, X @nwarikoo.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dearborn couple stuck in Gaza file lawsuit seeking evacuation help
