TerrorismJudgment against Palestinian Authority for supporting terrorism unlikely to be collected
On Monday, a jury in Manhattan found the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) liable for their role in knowingly supporting six terror attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004, in which Americans were killed and injured. The case was brought under the Antiterrorism Act of 1991, which allows American citizens who are victims of international terrorism to sue in U.S. courts and collect triple the amount of damages awarded by the courts. The judgment on Monday granted $655.5 million to the plaintiffs. Legal analysts, however, question whether victims and families of victims will actually get any money from the ruling.
On Monday, a jury in Manhattan found the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) liable for their role in knowingly supporting six terror attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004, in which Americans were killed and injured. According to the Algemeiner, the civil complaint claims that the attackers were either on the payroll of the PA or the PLO. Shortly after the attacks, their families received “martyr pay” and other forms of support from both organizations. Attorney Kent Yalowitz, representing the plaintiffs, said members of the PA and the PLO who launched the attacks were operating on behalf of their respective organizations. “Now the PLO and the PA know there is a price for supporting terrorism,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israel Law Center attorney also representing the plaintiffs.
The case was brought under the Antiterrorism Act of 1991, which allows American citizens who are victims of international terrorism to sue in U.S. courts and collect triple the amount of damages awarded by the courts. The judgment on Monday granted $655.5 million to the plaintiffs.
Legal analysts, however, question whether victims and families of victims will actually get any money from the ruling. “The problem is not getting the judgment, the problem is collecting,” New York University law professor Oscar Chase said. “I’m not going to say they can’t or won’t recover the money or some of it. I am going to say it’s difficult.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs have warned that they would go after the group’s assets in the United States and abroad. “Once you have a judgment, the P.A. and the P.L.O., if they don’t pay, are like any other deadbeat debtor,” said Yalowitz.
“There is no money,” PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said at a news conference on Tuesday. “Maybe they can get some furniture from our offices in Washington.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected the “international community to continue to punish those who support terrorism, just as the U.S. federal court has done, and to back the countries that are fighting terrorism.”
The Palestinian groups said they would appeal the verdict. “We will appeal this decision,” Dr. Mahmoud Khalifa, the Palestinian Authority’s deputy minister of information, said in a statement. “We are confident that we will prevail, as we have faith in the U.S. legal system and are certain about our common sense belief and our strong legal standing.”
“This case is just the latest attempt by hard-line anti-peace factions in Israel to use and abuse the U.S. legal system to advance their narrow political and ideological agenda,” he added, calling the decision, “a tragic disservice to the millions of Palestinians who have invested in the democratic process and the rule of law in order to seek justice and redress their grievances.”
