Palestinian Authority Found Liable for Terrorist Attacks

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Summary: The Palestinian Authority and the PLO have been found liable by a jury and must pay families of victims $218.5 million.  

The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization has been found liable by a federal jury for supporting six terrorist attacks, according to The Wall Street Journal.

  

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The attacks occurred in Israel more than 10 years ago. The groups were ordered to pay $218.5 million to the families of the victims.

It took the jury just two days of deliberations to come to a decision after five weeks of testimony. This is the first civil trial against the Palestinian political groups in the United States.

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The trial was a result of a lawsuit filed in 2004 citing the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act. The law allows United States victims of international terrorism to seek solutions in federal court. The law also automatically triples the damages allotted by a jury due to claims involving acts of terrorism.

The shootings and bombings in Israel from the early 2000s killed 33 people and wounded more than 400. The plaintiffs in the case include 10 United States families, all of whom were affected by six attacks, one of which was a 2002 bombing of a Hebrew University cafeteria as well as a 2004 suicide bombing on a bus in Jerusalem.

The jury was asked to award $350 million in damages to the plaintiffs during closing arguments on Thursday in the trial.

The plaintiff lawyer, Kent Yalowitz from Arnold & Porter LLP, said, “Money is oxygen for terrorism. Take away their money by making them pay their fair share of what they did.”

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Both the PLO and Palestinian Authority have denied any involvement in the attacks and claim they should not be held responsible for them.

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Image credit: algemeiner.com