An Israeli law center that defends victims of terror is suing an upscale Manhattan hotel that has agreed to host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit to New York City next week, when he will address the United Nations General Assembly.
Ahmadinejad is set to address the UN on Sept. 26, the day of Yom Kippur.
The Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center said Wednesday that it filed a motion in Manhattan federal court demanding that the Warwick Hotel deny Ahmadinejad a room and instead grant that room to Stuart Hersh, a Shurat HaDin client who has yet to receive the $12 million judgment owed to him by Iran after he was injured in a 1997 Hamas suicide bombing in Jerusalem. A U.S. court found Iran liable for financially supporting that attack in 2003.
“It is insult enough that Ahmadinejad will receive U.S. security personnel during his stay in Manhattan, subsidized by American tax dollars,” Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin, said in a statement. “But that outrage is eclipsed by the idea that this craven outlaw will reside in the lap of luxury at a five-star hotel while his victims still suffer from his underwriting of violent, illegal acts. Give him a cot at the UN or perhaps the other murderers at the Libyan Mission will give him a bed.”
"Our client, Stuart Hersh, continues to suffer from the suicide bombing that Iranfinanced in Jerusalem nearly fifteen years ago. We remain committed to getting Mr. Hersh, not Ahmadinejad, the star-studded treatment. The Warwick's pursuit of profit is unconscionable," the statement continued.
Shurat Hadin said it has secured more than $1 billion in judgments and collected $120 million in payments for terror victims and their families.