Four men who claim they were discriminated against when they were asked to leave an American Airlines jet and strip-searched in front of other passengers have filed a civil-rights lawsuit against the airline. Three female American Airlines employees searched Waesam Hamdan, Ehab Abdelaziz, Eyhab Matari and Osama Zeidan (all U.S. citizens of Palestinian descent) for 30 minutes in March after airline officials removed the men from the aircraft.

The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiffs were only removed from the plane and searched because of their Arabic names. According to attorneys, no passengers complained about the men. Shortly after being searched, they were allowed back on the aircraft.