U.S. Intervenes in Lawsuits Over Palestinian Terror Attacks

WASHINGTON (AP) —

The Obama administration has intervened in a lawsuit over Palestinian terror attacks that have killed Americans, advising a judge that requiring a hefty bond payment in the case could financially destabilize the Palestinian government.
The filing comes in a case in New York City where a jury this year awarded $218.5 million to survivors and victims’ relatives in a case brought against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. That amount is automatically tripled under the Anti-Terrorism Act, lawyers have said.
By intervening, the government said it was trying to strike a balance between its support for the rights of terrorism victims to be compensated and concerns that a large bond imposed while the verdict is on appeal would weaken the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority and undermine “several decades of U.S. foreign policy.”
“Senior U.S. officials have made clear to other governments that if the PA were to collapse, we would be faced with a crisis that would not only impact the security of Israelis and Palestinians, but would potentially have ripple effects elsewhere in the region,” Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a sworn declaration filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The Justice Department filed a formal “statement of interest” in the case at the behest of the State Department, federal officials have said.
The plaintiffs have requested that the Palestinian government deposit $30 million per month while the case is on appeal. They say the Palestinian Authority has the money to make those payments.
“We are gratified that the Department of Justice supports the rights of survivors of international terrorism to enforce their rights and collect the judgment but disappointed that the State Department failed to take any stand against the PLO and PA’s policy of putting convicted terrorists on their payroll as soon as they are jailed,” Kent Yalowitz, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “If the PA has enough money to pay convicted terrorists, it has enough to pay the judgment in this case.”
The case was brought by American families and concerns a series of bombings and shootings between 2002 and 2004. Jurors heard dramatic testimony from relatives of people killed and survivors who never fully recovered.

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