Press Release
US Federal Court
Orders against the PA and PLO
are Legal at the Surface, Political in Essence,
and should be addressed with high professionalism
The
Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) were
found liable on by a U.S. court for attacks in Jerusalem over 10 years ago and
on that basis fined USD $218 million.
The
Jury Panel of 12 Jurors at a Manhattan federal court held the trial last Friday
(20/2/2015), were both the PA and PLO were facing a case filed against them by
American-Israeli dual nationals, for their claimed role in a series of attacks
in and around Jerusalem between 2001 and 2004 and left several causalities[1].
The
case that has been filed since 2004 had never been approved earlier by the
court for the reasons of "being outside its areas of jurisdiction".
Recently, the appeals court approved proceeding with the case, with the
approval officially taking place last month following the joining of the State
of Palestine to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the calls made by
Palestinians to sue Israeli officials; which raises some doubts that the
proceedings are more of a punishment against joining the ICC[2]. This has been frankly reflected in the
statements by the Prime Minister of the Israeli Occupation State, Binyamin
Netanyahu, who commended the court's order adding in a written statement that
"instead of drawing the requisite lesson, the Palestinian Authority is
advancing steps that endanger regional stability such as the hypocritical application
to the International Criminal Court even as it is allied with the Hamas
terrorist organization"[3].
The
order was issued following an earlier decision by the Israeli Occupation State
to freeze an amount of USD $128 million due to the PA. The amount is part of
the Palestinian taxes collected by the Israelis; while these taxes constitute
almost half the income of the Palestinian treasury, the Israeli contravention
came following the announcement of Palestine's membership in the ICC[4].
The
court order comes regardless of the PA signing of several agreements with
Israel on security arrangements, and continuous condemnation of attacks carried
by resistance factions inside the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948, and also
regardless of the continuous efforts by the PA to prevent the occurrence of
such attacks.
The
legal battle against the Israeli Occupation and its continuous violations has
thus officially started, following the Palestinian membership in several
international conventions, including the Rome Statute of the ICC. The grave
challenges facing the "new" state of Palestine should not deter us
from proceeding forward in suing the criminals of the Israeli Occupation.
In
light of the order by the US federal court, we at the Palestinian
Association for Human Rights - Witness call to the following:
1.
Appealing to the US federal
court in the aforementioned case against the PA and PLO
2.
Urgently establishing a team
of highly specialized legal professionals, representing the different
Palestinian political and social groups, as a national platform with a
dedicated budget, to become the legal Palestinian authority of reference.
3.
Calling upon the concerned
court to revisit its order, and investigate the many crimes and violations
committed against Palestinian American dual nationals.
4.
Re-affirming the Right of the
Palestinian People to sue the Israeli criminals of war, at all costs.
5.
Mobilizing Palestinian and
Arab efforts, namely at the Diplomatic level, to support the efforts in the
legal battle against the Israeli Occupation.
Beirut, 04/03/2015
The Palestinian
Association for Human Rights - Witness