A Jerusalem court has ruled that the Palestinian Authority must be held accountable for attacks carried out by terrorist organizations that operate in Palestinian territory because it provided financial and ideological support to the terrorists.
“The PLO, the PA, (Yasser) Arafat, Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and other senior figures such as Marwan Barghouti all aimed to kill Jews and Israelis and harm the State of Israel,” Justice Moshe Drori wrote in his Monday ruling.
The court said the PA is responsible for terror attacks carried out by organizations organizations such as the PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad because it provided money and weapons to carry out the attacks plus gave financial support for the families of suicide bombers and Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
The ruling comes in response to petitions filed on behalf of terror victims and their families and demands compensation of up to $280 million for 17 attacks in which 34 Israelis were killed and seven wounded. The case was initiated by Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center.
Shurat HaDin founder Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said this unprecedented decision underscores the violent agenda employed by Arafat, the late Palestinian president.
“What Arafat did not achieve through the Oslo Accords, he tried to achieve through suicide bombings and shootings,” Darshan-Leitner said. “The Palestinian cause was genocide against Jews in Israel, and for that it will now pay dearly.”
The court’s ruling, she added, proved that the Second Intifada “was not a popular uprising, but a planned and deliberate war against the civilian population of Israel.”
Whether the PA can or will pay any damages awarded is another story, although Israel can apply punitive measurements and also recruit the U.S. and other allies to pressure to the PA to pay up.
