A U.S. judge in the Southern District of New York has dismissed a claim by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) against the legality of a $3 billion lawsuit by terror victims and their families.

 

District Judge George Daniels ruled that the shootings and bombings of American citizens in Jerusalem between 2001 and 2004 were acts of terrorism and not acts of war, as the PA and PLO claimed.

 

The PA and PLO also tried to argue that the court lacked jurisdiction in the case by attempting to claim immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, but failed in their claim that an Israeli court would be the more appropriate venue for the plaintiffs, victims of seven attacks that occurred from 2001 to 2004, to pursue their lawsuit.

 

The judge noted that the terrorist attacks targeted public places and not government or military installations. He ruled that the intent of the PA and PLO terrorists was "to cause far-reaching devastation upon the masses [with a] merciless capability of indiscriminately killing and maiming untold numbers in heavily populated civilian areas."

 

Justice Daniels also rejected the argument that the suits cannot be filed outside of Israel, citing the 1991 American Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows American citizens and their survivors to use federal courts for claims resulting from international terrorism.

 

The case is not the first in which the Palestinian Authority has been held responsible by American courts for the murderous behavior of its terrorists.  

 

Earlier this year, another federal district judge in New Yorkrequired the PA to post a bond of more than $190 million while it appealed a 2006 default judgment that awarded $192.7 million in damages resulting from a 2002 terror attack on a bat mitzvah held in Hadera, in northern Israel.

 

A 31-year-old American citizen, performer Aharon Ellis sang for the crowd that night; his last act on earth was to protect the life of the young bat mitzvah girl by shielding her from the terrorist's bullets with his own body.

 

Asking Rice to Intervene

For the past several years, PA officials have appealed to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asking her to intervene in cases where American judges have awarded damages to families of American victims of PA and PLO terrorist attacks.

 

In one such case, funds in two PLO bank accounts were frozen when the defendants did not meet their obligations to the victims' families. In another, retirement funds for PA workers that were being managed in the U.S. were frozen by the courts when the PA government refused to comply with a judgment in a U.S. ruling.

 

PA Prime Minister Salam Fayaad, then-PA Finance Minister, wrote to Rice in June 2005 with one request for intervention, calling one lawsuit a "serious obstacle" to negotiations with Israel. PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas appealed to Rice in November 2006 to dismiss a separate but similar ruling.

 

That time, the Secretary of State wrote back, saying "the judgment is final and enforceable in United States courts," and suggested that the PA look into "out of court solutions so as to avoid enforcement actions."

 

Rice told Abbas in a letter written in 2007 to "respond to U.S. legal proceedings in a good faith and a timely manner." In 2008, The U.S. State Department again declined to dismiss any of the lawsuits by families of victims of PA and PLO terror.