The Court of Appeals in the US capital, Washington, upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by the "Jewish National Fund" against the "American Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR)" in what was considered a major judicial victory against the Israeli lobby organizations' attempts to silence advocacy voices for the Palestinian cause in the United States.

It happened in the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) Court of Appeals on Tuesday, after a lawsuit brought by the Jewish National Fund and 12 other plaintiffs (US citizens living in Israel) targeting the US campaign for and support for Palestinian rights. Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

The plaintiffs allege an alleged relationship between the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) with the BDS National Committee and support for the Great March of Return, a movement that in 2018 saw thousands of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip protest for their legal right to return to their ancestral homes that they seized. Israel during its creation in 1948.

The suit alleges that these activities violated the Anti-Terrorism Act, which prohibits "material support" of terrorism. Hamas was designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the United States in 1997.

According to a press release by the US-Palestinian organization USCPR, the court found that "the advocacy and coordination of a boycott of Israel" economically, academically [and] diplomatically "is not illegal."

Although this lawsuit was previously dismissed last January, the move to uphold the dismissal is nonetheless a (interim) victory for the USCPR, given that the organization still expects another appeal sometime in the coming months. Ahmed Abu Zneid said, The executive director of the organization said in a press statement that the plaintiffs will ask the court to reconsider, believing that the court will remain firm in its decision.

What the court did is considered an application of the law that gives the organization the right to work for the Palestinian cause, and all that the "Jewish National Fund" organization seeks is to drown the pro-Palestinian workers in judicial quagmire to waste its efforts and resources.

It is not expected that any future endeavors by the "Jewish National Fund" in this lawsuit will be crowned with any success, but there is concern among activists for Palestinian rights that the continuation of the cases against them exhausts their energies.

In March 2021, a lower court dismissed the lawsuit, calling the arguments unconvincing. In January, the USCPR asked the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington to uphold a federal district court's dismissal of the lawsuit.