Terror victims file NIS 20b. lawsuit against Arab Bank
The attacks include the 1995 Beit Lid Junction suicide bombing, the 1996 Dizengoff Center suicide attack and the 2002 Netanya Park Hotel Passover bombing, in which a total of 65 Israelis were killed.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, YONAH JEREMY BOBA press photographer pictures the damage to the Hotel Park in Netanya in 2002. A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in the hotel killing 30 people(photo credit: REUTERS)
1,132 Israeli victims of terrorism filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in the Jerusalem District Court for NIS 20 billion against the Arab Bank PLC for its alleged funding of terrorists who carried out attacks against Israel.The lawsuit followed a separate case filed in the US in 2004, which led to a historic judgment in 2014 and an eventual $1b. in compensation in a settlement with the bank. Victims involved in that lawsuit held dual US-Israeli citizenship.A second case put forth by 6,000 victims, including the 1,132 Israeli victims who filed Tuesday, was rejected by the US Supreme Court in April 2018, since they were not US citizens.Arab Bank, based in Amman, Jordan, operates some 600 branches around the world, is one of the largest Arab-affiliated banks in the world and is essentially Jordan’s sovereign bank.Whereas the US lawsuit caused serious business issues for Arab Bank, which had large assets that the US could access, it is unclear what assets Israeli courts might be able to reach.The US case, although successful, was delayed for years due to the positive US-Jordan relationship. It is unclear what position the Israeli government might take regarding this case, since it also has a delicate relationship with Jordan.The suit claims that the bank actively supported – through funding and logistics – terrorist attacks against Israel between 1995 and 2005 carried out by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and other Palestinian terrorist organizations.The attacks mentioned in the suit include the 1995 suicide bombing at the Beit Lid Junction, which claimed the lives of 22 Israelis; the 1996 suicide attack outside of Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, which killed 13 people; the 2002 bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya on Passover night, which killed 30; and a series of suicide attacks against buses, which killed scores of Israelis.The suit was filed by Israeli attorneys Gilad Markman and Benjamin Pearlman.
