HOUSTON – A Houston-area woman is suing the Biden administration, not over what they’ve done, but over what she says they haven’t done.
Despite multiple attempts by her Palestinian American mother and sister to leave Gaza after the war began, Mai Abushabaan said they became trapped. She says the delay in help from the American government is discriminatory.
She adds, that even though she and her family members who were stuck in Gaza are American, they haven’t been treated like it, she’s hoping to make a point through legal action
“I was like oh my goodness this is going to get bad,” she added.
Remembering those frantic moments on Oct. 7th, when her mother and sister, who are also American, became trapped in Gaza. They were there to visit her grandparents, but she says the family trip turned into a fight for survival.
“And so I called them, and they were telling me ‘Don’t worry, we’re ok, we don’t know what’s going on but we’re hearing bombs go off, and if things were going to escalate,’” Abushabaan said. “I wanted to be strong and support them and let them know that you guys are going to make it out, you guys are going to be OK, but how could I do that even if I wasn’t sure.”
The Israel-Hamas War was just beginning.
“Eventually my mom and sister had to evacuate my grandparents’ house and move to the south,” Abushabaan said.
It seemed nowhere was safe. She provided photos she says her loved ones took near her uncle’s home where they went to stay in Gaza. That area was also bombed.
Abushabaan said her mother and sister became two of hundreds of Palestinian Americans in Gaza they felt were neglected by the US government.
“They had already started to make plans for Americans in Israel to evacuate. They did tell me, oh if your mom can get into Israel, if your mom can get into Egypt then we’ll be able to help her. But how is she supposed to get there, how is my sister supposed to get there if there’s no safe route? She said.
She says multiple attempts to cross the Egyptian border failed.
“There was one day when my mom was approved to leave and my sister wasn’t and they sent them back home. That was their 4th time trying to evacuate, the 5th time my sister’s name was on the list and they were able to leave,” Abushabaan said.
Abushabaan says she has now filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration
“Despite the politics, despite what’s going on, the United States should protect its citizens domestically and abroad and they failed to uphold that standard,” she said.
“I don’t think that there’s any reason that Palestinian-Americans had to wait one month to evacuate whereas Americans in Israel were evacuated starting Oct. 15th,” she said.
Abushabaan said her sister and mother are finally on their way back to Houston after a layover in Germany from Cairo. They’re expected back in the US tomorrow afternoon.
She says she hopes the lawsuit originally filed to help get her family back now aims to hold the U.S. government accountable for protecting all of its citizens.