Justice Ministry Official: Lawsuits Cannot Be Filed Against UNRWA; U.N. Institutions Have Immunity

By Aryeh Stern

The Labor and Welfare Committee, chaired by MK Rabbi Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism), convened on Monday to begin preparation for second and third readings of a bill intended to allow victims of hostile acts to file lawsuits and receive compensatory damages from those who bear responsibility for acts of terrorism in conjunction with receiving benefits from the state. At present, according to the Benefits for Casualties of Hostile Acts Law, 1970, it is not possible to receive damages benefits under this law and also compensatory damages under another law. As a result, people harmed by hostile acts are compelled to refund to the National Insurance Institute (NII) the full amount of compensation received from the NII in order to file a suit for compensatory damages from a party that has been found to bear responsibility for the terrorist attack, such as the Palestinian Authority. Bills sponsored by MKs Sharren Haskel (National Right), Sharon Nir (Yisrael Beitenu), Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) and additional MKs, which were merged [into a single bill], propose to allow compensation to be received from the party that caused the harm in the amount of 25% of the damages awarded to the casualties, along with receiving compensation from the state.

Ministry of Justice official Dr. Tamar Calahorra explained, “The law has never prevented the right to file a lawsuit, but rather the right to receive benefits from National Insurance Institute in conjunction with compensatory damages from the party that caused the harm. Today there are already dozens of lawsuits and hundreds of casualties from previous waves of terrorist attacks. On Oct. 7, a huge number of fatalities and casualties were added to this, so there will be very great potential for filing lawsuits in the wake of the proposed amendment, over the course of several years. The defendant in the damages lawsuit can be anyone involved in implementation, financing or assistance to the terrorist attack, and for this reason there is extensive potential for parties who can be sued, and not necessarily the Palestinian Authority alone. Therefore, it is difficult to know how and in what way the bill will be implemented.”

In response to a question by MK Haskel, whether it would be possible to file a lawsuit against UNRWA as responsible for the Oct. 7 event, Dr. Calahorra replied, “As of today, UNRWA’s personnel have revocable immunity, but UNRWA as an institution, like all U.N. institutions, is fully immune to lawsuits.”

Committee Chair MK Eichler said in response, “When the U.N. was founded, the goal was to protect people, and in the end the U.N. itself is immune to being sued for crimes it has committed. That’s absurd.”

Commenting on the bill, MK Nir said, “The bill is trying to rectify a historical wrong against the casualties of hostile acts and their families, and allows damages to be collected from the terrorists. This is good news for families that have been coping with this situation for many years, and also for the families of the Oct. 7 casualties. We are now asking for the compensation to be equal to 50% of the damages, and for there to be a possibility of retroactive applicability for pending cases, and of course for new cases that are opened.”

MK Rothman said, “There are two important and principled approaches here. The first says that those who are responsible for terrorist attacks and harm people on city streets or in the Oct. 7 events or beforehand, should compensate those who were harmed. The legal proceeding is part of the rehabilitation process of the person who was harmed, so that the person can regain the control that was taken from him suddenly. The second approach states that terrorism does not arise in a vacuum. It has a financial, organizational, and educational infrastructure, and all these things are based on money; that is the engine for terrorism. So the goal is to ensure that by means of these lawsuits, not only will we cause them to pay for what they have done, but we will also prevent the next terrorist attacks.”