Israel Matzav

'Palestinian Authority' to terror victims: 'See you in court?'

The 'Palestinian Authority' has decided that it will defend dozens of lawsuits filed against it in the United States by terror victims who have US citizenship according to a report in Tuesday's New York Sun (Hat Tip: NY Nana). Until now, the Authority has refused to submit to the courts' jurisdiction and default judgments have been entered against it when it did not appear. But whether the Authority will actually defend the lawsuits - or whether this is a legal maneuver to buy time - remains to be seen. And if the cases go to trial and the victims win, it is doubtful that the 'Palestinian Authority' has the money to pay the judgments. At least one judge is trying to protect the victims from lengthy, expensive trials with nothing from which to collect at the end. Here's that story.

"The purported good faith of Defendants, whether they truly mean what they say in this regard, also remains to be seen," a district court judge in Manhattan, Victor Marrero, wrote in one recent order on the subject. Judge Marrero conditioned his agreement to hold a trial on the Palestinian Authority's willingness to post a bond in the amount of one default judgment plus interest, $192,740,660.13.

The judgment was entered in a suit relating to the 2002 death of an American, Aharon Ellis, who was gunned down while singing at a bat mitzvah in Hadera, Israel. The gunman, as well as those who helped orchestrate and fund the attack, were Palestinian Authority security officials, the plaintiffs claim. The Palestinian Authority claims the men were working as rogue agents, according to a decision by Judge Marrero.

In May, lawyers for the Palestinian Authority at the Washington law firm Miller & Chevalier wrote to Judge Marrero to say they had discussed the matter of a bond "at the highest levels of the Palestinian government," but that the state of the Palestinian Authority's finances made posting "a $193,000,000 bond a practical impossibility."

Making a counteroffer, Mr. Fayyad says he has authorized the payment of a $15 million bond, according to an affidavit.

Noting that the Palestinian Authority relies on foreign aid, including from America, Mr. Fayyad said other foreign countries might not like to see their aid money going to pay court judgments.

"There would be a substantial negative impact on future donations if donor countries learn that funds have been used for U.S. litigation rather than for providing relief in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," Mr. Fayyad said in his affidavit.

I'm sure the donor nations would be unhappy to see their funds used to pay terror victims. But maybe the 'Palestinian Authority' should have thought of that before they spent their foreign aid on weapons and dispatched terrorists to randomly murder innocent people. And maybe they ought to start making sure it doesn't happen again by stopping the glorification of terrorists in their official media.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:12 AM