NEW YORK: A US jury in New York has held the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian Authority responsible for a series of attacks in the early 2000s in Israel that killed or wounded several Americans.

In finding the Palestinian authorities liable in the attacks, jurors awarded the victims $218.5 million in damages for the bloodshed. But most legal experts here observed that it will be difficult to execute the jury’s verdict in Israeli-occupied territories. In fact they say the verdict could have adverse impact.

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.In closing arguments, plaintiff attorney Kent Yalowitz had urged the Manhattan jury to order the PLO and Palestinian Authority to pay $350 million for providing material support to terrorists involved in six bombings and shootings from 2002 to 2004.

No amount could make up for the human toll, he said. “But if the only thing you can give them is money, then money has to stand in as compensation for the unspeakable loss,” he added.

Defence attorney Mark Rochon had argued there was no proof Palestinian authorities sanctioned the attacks as alleged in a 2004 lawsuit brought by 10 American families, even though members of their security forces were convicted in Israeli courts on charges they were involved. “What they did, they did for their own reasons ... not the Palestinian Authority’s,” he said in federal court in Manhattan.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2015

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