US Treasury sued for not impeding financial support for Israeli settlements

A lawsuit was filed in US courts on Wednesday claiming the US Treasury Department had failed to stop non-profit groups from sending billions of dollars in funds to help support what it said were illegal Israeli settlements and the country's army.

The lawsuit was put forward by Susan Abulhawa, a Palestinian-American writer and human rights activist, who said it was about seeking justice for the Palestinian people.

"I want those organisations that aided Israel to be forced to pay restitutions for victims impacted by their actions," Abulhawa said, Al Jazeera reported.

In her 73-page lawsuit, Abulhawa alleged that approximately 150 non-profit organisations had funneled $280bn to the Middle Eastern country over the past two decades.

Those monies contributed to violations of US and international law, subverted American foreign policy, and contributed to countless crimes and human rights abuses against Palestinians, the lawsuit read.

In an e-mail sent to the Qatari broadcaster, the US Treasury Department said it does not comment on pending litigation.

"For 30 years at least, the US taxpayer has been funding and/or subsidising criminal activities overseas, ie murder, arson, malicious property destruction, assault and battery and ethnic cleansing and international terrorist acts," the lawsuit also said.

"This [Obama] administration, like every administration before it since 1967, views settlement activity as illegitimate and counterproductive to the cause of peace," the US State Department responded in an e-mail, according to Al Jazeera.

"The United States has never defended or supported settlements and activity associated with them and, by extension, does not pursue policies that would legitimise them."