(JTA) — A U.S. appeals court has ruled that a $1 billion lawsuit by Palestinians and Palestinian Americans against Sheldon Adelson and other Israel supporters for genocide and other war crimes can go forward.
The unanimous decision Tuesday by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a district court ruling dismissing the case because it required a court to rule on political and foreign policy questions.
The lawsuit alleges a conspiracy by the pro-Israel defendants to expel non-Jews from the West Bank and Jerusalem, and accused them of committing or aiding in genocide and other war crimes, Reuters reported.
Other defendants named in the lawsuit are Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, Bank Leumi and Bank Hapoalim, construction and support companies such as Hewlett Packard and Volvo, 13 nonprofits and the United States.
One appeals court judge, Karen LeCraft Henderson, ruled that the court can decide whether the defendants named in the lawsuit conspired to remove non-Jews from the West Bank or committed war crimes “without touching the sovereignty question, if it concluded that Israeli settlers are committing genocide.”
