HISTORIC US TRIAL AWARDS $218 MILLION IN DAMAGES TO VICTIMS
OF PALESTINIAN TERROR
After years of back and forth
litigation and waiting, a US jury found on Monday that the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) were responsible for a
series of terror attacks in Israel that killed or wounded American citizens. The attacks, which took place in the early
2000s as part of the Second Intifada, were found to be incited by PLO and PA
leadership during a tumultuous time in Israel’s history. Thirty-three people
were killed and more than 390 wounded.
The jury awarded the victims $218.5
million in damages. The case, which was tried under the US Anti-Terrorism Act,
could allow for the amount to be tripled. The landmark trial lasted more than
five weeks under US district judge George Daniels in New York. Eleven families
served as plaintiffs in the case. The
historic case in Manhattan and a second in Brooklyn are the most prominent
attempts by American victims of Palestinian terror to use the US court system
as a means to seek damages. The total amount could reach into the billions of
dollars.
In his closing arguments, Kent
Yalowitz, the attorney representing the victims, said that the PA and PLO
should be held accountable for providing material support for six bombings and
shootings between 2002 and 2004. While
no amount of money could make up for the loss of life and trauma involved, “if
the only thing you can give them is money, then money has to stand in as
compensation for the unspeakable loss,” he said.
Jurors heard heartbreaking
testimony of victims of the attacks and family members who lost loved ones.
Rena Sokolov described how a family vacation to Israel in 2002 turned to
tragedy. Sokolov and her family were walking near a shoe store in Jerusalem
when a bomb went off. She described that she felt she “was in a washing
machine” and that she thought she would die from the amount of blood quickly
flowing from her broken leg. “I looked
to my right and saw a severed head of a woman about three feet from me,” she
said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor
Liberman welcomed the verdict, saying it is “primarily a moral victory for
Israel and victims of terror.” “This
decision should be wake-up call to the Palestinians themselves and those
working for them to recognize that terrorism is an essential component of the
PA,” Lieberman said. “The glorification and veneration of terrorism and
terrorists among the Palestinians – which the PA is responsible for – is an
affliction that must be eradicated through re-education.”
Palestinian Deputy Information
Minister Mahmoud Khalida vowed to appeal what he called “baseless charges.” He
said that the case was politically motivated by “anti-peace factions” in Israel
who seek to block a two-state solution. “We
are confident that we will prevail, as we have faith in the US legal system and
are certain about our common sense belief and our strong legal standing,” he
said in a statement.
While it remains unclear how the PA
and PLO will pay the damages, Israeli lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner from the
Israel Law Center (Shurat Hadin) told reporters in New York that no stone will
be left unturned to force the Palestinians to pay. “Now the Palestinian Authority knows there is
a price for sending suicide bombers to our malls, to our cafes and blowing our
buses up, and we will pursue and will make sure that the PA will pay every
dollar,” she stated.
“We’re going to take steps against
their assets, they have assets in the United States, in Israel. We’re going to
go after bank accounts and money that they are getting paid on a monthly basis
in Israel, for instance.” The PA is
expected to appeal the verdict and protest that it does not have sufficient
funds to pay
VERDICT AGAINST PALESTINIAN
AUTHORITY COULD SPELL TROUBLE FOR ABBAS
One can’t underestimate the impact
of the $655.5 million US terrorism trial verdict against the Palestinian
Authority on its hopes to convince the International Criminal Court prosecutor
to indict Israeli soldiers and leaders for alleged war crimes in last summer’s
Gaza war.
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