Anti-Israel groups face lawsuit over blockade protest at Chicago airport

Pro-Palestine activist organizations are being sued for blocking an entrance at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago in April by one man who is claiming he has sustained damages as a result of the protest.

A man who missed a flight due to the blockage caused by the anti-Israel activists has filed against a number of groups involved in the incident, which was called “A15 Action” by the groups who plotted the blockage at O’Hare and other sites across the United States. 

The protest that blocked travel at O’Hare was a part of what organizers of the protest called an “economic blockade to free Palestine,” as reported by The Seattle Times.

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Groups and individuals named in the lawsuit include the National Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and four individuals directly involved in “orchestrating or promoting the blockade.” 

Attorneys at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute are representing Christopher Manhart, the man who was unable to make his flight for work due to the protest. The group writes in the complaint that, “Christopher Manhart and other innocent class members heading into O’Hare that morning had nothing to do with the international dispute thousands of miles away; many likely have no opinion at all on the issue.” 

The complaint outlines that the actions taken by the organized group blockade was not protected speech as it “sought to ‘identify and blockade major choke points in the economy… with the aim of causing the most economic impact.’” The complaint adds that “[s]uch conduct is punished without remorse or hesitation in a society that upholds the rule of law and respects its voters.”

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Further, the complaint lists that Manhart and other individuals “suffered injury” as a result of the protest, specifically “because they were unlawfully confined to their vehicles during the blockade the morning of April 15, 2024, and because Defendants’ actions unreasonably interfered with the Class Members’ right to freely travel on public roads and highways.” 

The Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute’s Theodore Frank told Campus Reform that, “If prosecutors won’t act to stop and deter these destructive criminal actions, the civil justice system needs to step in to send the message that anti-American activists can’t injure innocents with impunity.” 

”We hope to obtain an injunction that bars future road blocking and compensation for the thousands injured,” he added.