US judge unlikely to tip award in Israel bombings over $1b
Federal judge indicates PA, PLO not required to pay interest on $654M awarded to Israeli terror victims
NEW YORK — A US judge has indicated he is unlikely to boost a $654 million lawsuit award to victims of terror attacks in Israel over a decade ago to more than $1 billion.
Federal Judge George Daniels said at a hearing in New York City on Tuesday he was not convinced the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority should have to pay interest.
A lawyer for the PLO told the judge that interest could boost the award to over $1 billion and bring an end to the Palestinian Authority.
In February, a jury awarded $218 million to victims. It concluded the Palestinian groups were behind attacks in the early 2000s that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more, including some Americans.
One of the attacks was the July 2002 bombing at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The attack killed 9 people, including 5 American students, and injured over 100 others.
The award is automatically tripled under the US Anti-Terrorism Act.
The suit against the PLO and Palestinian Authority and another against the Jordan-based Arab Bank had languished for years as the defendants challenged the American courts’ jurisdiction. Recent rulings found that they should go forward under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a more than 2-decade-old law that allows victims of US-designated foreign terrorist organizations to seek compensation for pain and suffering, loss of earnings and other hardship.
The plaintiffs relied on victim testimony and internal records showing the Palestinian Authority continued to pay the salaries of employees who were put behind bars in terror cases and paid benefits to families of suicide bombers and gunmen who died committing the attacks.
The case in Manhattan and another in Brooklyn have been viewed as the most notable attempts by American victims of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to use US courts to seek damages that could reach into the billions of dollars.
Last year, a Brooklyn jury decided that Arab Bank should be held responsible for a wave of Hamas-orchestrated suicide bombings that left Americans dead or wounded based on claims the financial institution knowingly did business with the terror group.