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Home Front: WoT

New Report Shows U.S. Charities Helping Fund Groups Linked To Hamas and PFLP

2025-03-22

[DailyWire] A number of tax-deductible charities and financial service providers are helping fund groups linked to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a new report alleges. Published by the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, the report accuses terrorist-linked groups of raising funds in the United States through tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations and through donor-advised financial service providers. “The sharp rise in violent anti-Semitism in the wake of the October 7th massacre highlights the urgent need for greater vigilance in preventing the diversion of aid and NGO funding to terror and hate,” Professor Gerald M. Steinberg, Founder and President of NGO Monitor told The Daily Wire. “This includes systematically investigating and documenting the support that IRS-registered charities receive from and provide to individuals and organizations linked to designated terror groups or active in spreading hate propaganda.” The report cites several NGOs tied to the PFLP and designated as terror groups by Israel, including the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Al-Haq, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). NGO Monitor accuses Al Mezan of having members with ties to both Hamas and the PFLP. The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), a 501(c)(3) based in Washington, D.C., claims on its website that in 2025 it provided funds to Al Haq, Al Mezan, DCI-P, and PCHR. Its website does not state how much it has given, but according to 2023 IRS filings, FMEP granted $10,000 to Al Mezan, and $58,000 to Al-Haq. Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, provided $800,000 between 2020-2023 to Al Haq, $250,000 between 2023-2025 to Al Haq Europe, $170,000 to Al Mezan in 2023, and $450,000 to Al Mezan between 2021-2024. Grassroots International has been soliciting donations for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, which the group has called a “long-term partner,” according to NGO Monitor. Other tax-deductible American charities that provided funds include the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) which granted $100,000 to DCI-P for 2020-2022 and Cultures of Resistance Network which has funded Al-Haq, DCI-P, the UAWC, and Al Mezan, according to NGO monitor. A 2023 report from the New York Post revealed that RBF shelled out millions since 2018 directly or indirectly to six anti-Israel organizations, some of which openly celebrated Hamas’s October 7 attack on civilians. In response, RBF rejected and claimed that their “grantee organizations support, materially or ideologically, acts of terrorism.” NGO Monitor’s report points out that the Alexandria, Virginia-based Charities Aid Foundation, which facilitated donor-advised grantmaking, lists DCI-P as a member of its “vetted network” of charitable organizations. The report added that Al-Haq and the Hind Rajab Foundation — whose founder boasts his ties to Hezbollah — use the San Francisco-based Stripe Inc. to process donations. The Hind Rajab Foundation, founded in Belgium, initiated legal proceedings to seek the arrests of IDF veterans, including American citizens, and has demanded the arrest of former President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Its founder, Dyab Abou Jahjah, in 2003 claimed he “joined the Hezbollah resistance against Israel,” called the September 11, 2001 attacks “sweet revenge” and is reportedly on the U.S. no-fly list. A Jerusalem Post report from last month reports that Jahjah has family and business links to actors designated as part of Hezbollah’s terror funding network. Al Mezan’s director, Issam Younis, participated in a 2017 panel discussion alongside now-deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar at an event that was also attended by leaders of other U.S.-designated terror organizations including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and PFLP. One of Al Mezan’s board members from 2010 to 2022 was Nafiz Al-Madhoun, the former Director-General of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Legislative Council, according to NGO Monitor. UAWC has been identified by a USAID audit as the “agricultural arm” of the PFLP and a 2022 audit by the Dutch government found that 34 individuals held politicians in both UAWC and PFLP between 2007-2020. Two of UAWC’s financial officers were arrested in 2019 for leading a PFLP terror cell that murdered a 17-year-old Israeli in a bombing. The Israeli Ministry of Defense designated Al-Haq as a terrorist entity in 2021 because it operated on behalf of the PFLP. In 2018, the group had its online credit card donations shut down by Visa, Mastercard, and American Express because of its PFLP ties, reported NGO Monitor. The group’s director, Shawan Jabarin, has been identified as a leading PFLP member by the Israeli Supreme Court and has identified several PFLP events. He also was part of the 2017 panel alongside Sinwar and Younis. PCHR’s founder and director, Raji Sourani, was imprisoned in 1979 for three years for being a member of the PFLP and denied entry to the United States in 2012, according to the report. He admitted his PFLP affiliation in a 2014 speech in Gaza where he said he was “proud” of the organization where he “fought in its ranks.” DCI-P was designated as a terror entity by Israel in 2021, which claimed it operated on behalf of the PFLP. The group was reportedly cut off from Citibank, Arab Bank PLC, and the U.S.-based Global Giving crowdfunding because of its terror ties. Numerous members with PFLP ties have been employed and appointed as board members, according to NGO monitor. Stripe, FMEP, Open Society Foundation, Grassroots International, RBF, and Cultures of Resistance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Arabia

High-ranking Saudi-led commander survives assassination attempt in Aden

2022-05-16

[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] A high-ranking military commander loyal to the Saudi-led coalition forces has survived an liquidation attempt in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... ’s southern port city of Aden on Sunday. This was reported by Yemen News Portal, based on testimonies of local sources. According to the sources, a boom-mobile went kaboom! and targeted a convoy of the head of major joint operations of the 4th Military Region, Brigadier General Saleh Ali Hassan, while he was passing in front of the Arab Bank on the main street of al-Maala. The military commander miraculously survived the blast, while some of his lover companions were maimed, the sources added. No group has claimed the responsibility for the attack. Aden is witnessing widespread insecurity, liquidations and liquidations among the armed factions loyal to the Saudi-led coalition.

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Europe

Israel reprimands Belgium again for inviting terror-related NGO to UNSC

2020-02-12

[Jpost] The Foreign Ministry also criticized the Belgian government’s "negligence" in handling the Carnival in Aalst, during which antisemitic floats were displayed in a parade. The Foreign Ministry summoned Belgium’s Deputy Ambassador Pascal Buffin to Jerusalem for the second time in a week on Tuesday, to protest his country’s invitation to an anti-Israel NGO with ties to the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine (PFLP) to address the UN Security Council. Anna Azari, the head of the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Section of the Foreign Ministry, reprimanded Buffin and called on Belgium to rescind the invitation and stop taking anti-Israel steps in the UNSC. Azari also expressed surprise that Israeli Ambassador to Belgium Emmanual Nahshon was reprimanded by the Belgian Foreign Ministry because of news reports about Israel’s criticism of Belgium. "The Belgians cannot expect us to stay quiet when they are taking advantage of being temporary presidents of the UNSC to hurt Israel," she said. DCI-P calls itself an organization defending the human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... of Paleostinian children. It alleges that Israel is committing war crimes and it supports the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement. It shares several leading figures with the PFLP, a designated terrorist group in the US, EU, Canada and Israel, to the extent that Citibank and the Arab Bank have stopped providing banking services to the NGO. Parker is the driving force behind pro-BDS legislation introduced in the US by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota), the think tank NGO Monitor reported. Last January, in his capacity as an adjunct professor at the CUNY Law School’s Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic, Parker filed an anti-Israel submission to the UN, replete with false statements and whitewashing of terrorist groups like Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,. CUNY subsequently launched an investigation into the law school’s partnership with DCI-P. Azari also criticized the Belgian government’s "negligence" in handling the Carnival in Aalst, during which antisemitic floats were displayed in a parade. The carnival is set for the day before the UNSC meeting. She said Israel expects Belgium’s leadership to "clearly condemn the antisemitic event." The Aalst carnival lost its place on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in late 2019 after the Belgian city's mayor refused to remove antisemitic imagery from the parade. Last year, one of its floats featured oversized figures of Jews in hassidic garb, with rats on their shoulders, holding money. In 2013, JTA reported, carnival revelers in Nazi uniforms held canisters labeled "Zyklon B" while walking with other participants dressed as concentration camp prisoners.

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Home Front: WoT

US appeals court voids verdict over Arab Bank and Hamas

2018-02-10

One of a number of cases involving Arab Bank that we have been following over the years. [Ynet] Arab Bank was found liable for knowingly supporting Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", terror attacks in Israel, but US appeals court throws out verdict, saying jury in case was instructed improperly about the 'international terrorism' element of one of the plaintiffs' claims. A US appeals court on Friday threw out a 2014 jury verdict finding Arab Bank Plc liable for knowingly supporting terror attacks in Israel linked to Hamas, a decision that triggers a settlement agreement with some plaintiffs. Friday's decision by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ends 13 and a half years of litigation over Arab Bank's liability, which the Jordanian lender has disputed, for 24 attacks in and around Israel in the early 2000s. The appeals court said the Brooklyn jury were instructed incorrectly by the trial judge that under federal law, Arab Bank committed an "act of international terrorism" by knowingly providing material support to Hamas, which the Department of State designated in 1997 as a foreign terrorist organization. In August 2015, 11 months after the verdict, Arab Bank had reached a confidential settlement with 527 victims or relatives of victims of 22 of the attacks, pending the bank's appeal of the verdict. Both sides agreed to forgo a retrial if the verdict were thrown out. "The plaintiffs will receive meaningful and very substantial compensation for their injuries," their lawyer, Gary Osen, said in an email. "Today's decision doesn't diminish the fact a jury found Arab Bank liable for knowingly supporting Hamas." Sarri Singer, injured in a 2003 Hamas-linked bombing of a bus in Jerusalem, said in a statement about Arab Bank: "Families hurt by them are going to get the help they need." In a statement, Arab Bank said "the district court's errors at trial all but dictated an adverse outcome. The bank is pleased to put this case behind it." Arab Bank's settlement averted a trial to determine damages for 16 "bellwether" plaintiffs, concerning three of the attacks. Had the verdict been affirmed, they would have been entitled to at least $100 million, Friday's decision said. The verdict had been the first in the United States holding a bank civilly liable for violating the Anti-Terrorism Act ("ATA"), which lets US citizens seek damages from international terrorism. Arab Bank was accused of handling transactions for Hamas, and routing money to charities that supported the group or families of jacket wallahs. The settlement averted a trial to determine damages that Arab Bank would have paid victims of three of the attacks. In Friday's decision, Circuit Judge Reena Raggi said a jury properly instructed on the law might have inferred that Arab Bank had been sufficiently "aware" of Hamas' activities. But she said "we cannot conclude that such evidence, as a matter of law," shows that the bank knew it was "playing a role in violent or life-endangering acts whose apparent intent was to intimidate or coerce civilians or to affect a government." The litigation originally covered 24 attacks, but the trial judge, Brian Cogan, dismissed claims concerning two of them. Congress' passage in 2016 of the Justice Against Terrorism Act extended ATA liability to those who aid and abet acts of international terrorism. The case is Linde v Arab Bank Plc, 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, Nos. 16-2098, 16-2119, 16-2134.

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Arabia

Palestinian billionaire Masri back in Amman after release in S. Arabia

2017-12-20

[Ynet] Paleostinian billionaire Sabih al-Masri, Jordan's most influential businessman, arrived back in Amman on Tuesday, a family source said, after his release from detention in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... linked to a crackdown on the rich and powerful there. Masri, chairman of Amman-based Arab Bank, Jordan's largest lender, was detained last week hours before he was planning to leave after chairing meetings of Saudi companies he owns, sources said. Masri, a Saudi citizen, said from his home in Riyadh on Sunday after his release that the Saudi authorities had accorded him "all respect". The authorities have not commented on his detention. Jordanian authorities privately said King Abdullah intervened to secure his release.

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Arabia

Billionaire Sabih al-Masri detained in Saudi Arabia

2017-12-17

[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] Paleostinian billionaire businessman Sabih al-Masri has been detained in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... on a business trip to Riyadh, his family confirmed to Rooters news agency. The 80-year-old founder of Zara Investment Holding and chairman of Arab Bank was held in the Saudi capital for questioning last week about "information related to corruption", according to Rai al-Youm. The Arab news website reported on Saturday that no formal charges were made against al-Masri, who reportedly also holds Saudi and Jordanian citizenship. Al-Masri, one of Jordan’s most prominent businessman, is the cousin of the billionaire Munib al-Masri, the wealthiest person in Paleostine. He also founded the Paleostine Securities Exchange, and has managed investment companies and financial economic institutions across the Middle East and beyond, including Arab Bank. Headquartered in Amman, Arab Bank is Jordan’s largest lender and functions as a major economic engine throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Masri’s detention sent shockwaves across Jordan where Masri’s multibillion-dollar investments are a cornerstone of the economy and employ thousands. Rooters reported that Masri had cancelled a dinner for friends and business associates that was planned for Tuesday upon his return to Jordan. Saudi Arabia initiated an anti-corruption purge at the beginning of November, which has implicated some of the country’s brass hats, businessmen and members of the royal family. Ynet adds: Reasons for Masri's detention were not clear but political sources said the Saudis might have used him to put pressure on Jordan's King Abdullah not to attend a Moslem summit last week to discuss US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The Jordanian monarch attended the Istanbul summit, however. He is a custodian of Moslem holy sites in Jerusalem and has been vocal in criticizing Trump over his decision on Jerusalem. Soddy Arabia, whose relations with the United States have warmed with Trump taking a harder line against its arch-rival Iran than his predecessor, appears to have taken a softer line on the decision on Jerusalem, according to analysts. Riyadh sent a junior minister to the Istanbul meeting.

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Home Front: WoT

Huge Jury Award Against Palestinian Groups in Terrorism Case

2015-02-24

[NYTIMES] The Paleostinian Authority and the Paleostine Liberation Organization were found liable on Monday by a jury in Manhattan for their role in knowingly supporting six terrorist attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004 in which Americans were killed and injured. The damages are to be $655.5 million, under a special terrorism law that provides for tripling the $218.5 million award made by the jury in Federal District Court. The verdict ended a decade-long legal battle to hold the Paleostinian organizations responsible for the terrorist acts. While the decision was a huge victory for the dozens of plaintiffs, it could also serve to strengthen the Israeli claim that the supposedly more moderate Paleostinian forces are directly linked to terrorism. The financial implications of the verdict for the defendants were not immediately clear. The Paleostinian Authority, led by the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... , had serious financial troubles even before Israel, as punishment for the Paleostinians' move in December to join the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... , began withholding more than $100 million a month in tax revenue it collects on the Paleostinians' behalf. Et voila! A source for funding the required payouts presents itself. The verdict came in the seventh week of a civil trial in which the jury heard emotional testimony from survivors of suicide kabooms and other attacks in Jerusalem, in which a total of 33 people were killed and more than 450 were maimed. "Money is oxygen for terrorism," Kent A. Yalowitz, a lawyer for the families, said in a closing argument on Thursday, noting that the antiterrorism law "hits those who send turbans where it hurts them most: in the wallet." The case was brought under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows American citizens who are victims of international terrorism to sue in the United States courts. The law was used last September by a Brooklyn jury to find Arab Bank liable for supporting terrorism by Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,. Damages in that case, filed by about 300 victims of 24 terrorist attacks, are to be decided in a second trial, which has not yet been held. In the Paleostinian case, the plaintiffs included 10 families, comprising about three dozen members, eight of whom were physically injured in the attacks while the others were left with deep psychological scars, testimony showed.

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Home Front: WoT

Trial Set For Terror Compensation From Arab Bank

2014-12-12

[IsraelTimes] A New York judge set a trial date on Wednesday to decide how much the Arab Bank is liable to pay in damages after it was found to have provided support to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, for attacks in Israel and the Paleostinian territories. Jury selection for the trial was scheduled for May 18 by US District Judge Brian Cogan, Rooters reported. In September a New York jury found the Jordan-based multinational financial house liable on 24 counts of supporting terrorism by transferring funds to Hamas. A jury deliberated for nearly two full days over the verdict after a month-long trial at the eastern district court in Brooklyn. The bank has said it will appeal the ruling although it is not clear if the appeal will be allowed before the damages trial is completed. A federal lawsuit was filed in 2004 on behalf of around 300 American relatives and the victims of 24 attacks carried out in Israel and the Paleostinian territories during the Second Intifada. The American victims and their relatives said the bank violated the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act when it served as a conduit for money from a Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... n fund to families of Paleostinians who died, including jacket wallahs. Plaintiffs said the bank transferred more than $70 million to an alleged Saudi terror entity, charities they claim were a front for Hamas and 11 globally designated terrorist clients. The trial heard that the bank was able to transfer $60,000 to Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and that, due to a spelling mistake of his name, it was not detected by screening software. Yassin was assassinated by Israel in 2004. Every bank that has operations in the United States ? like Arab Bank ? uses the same automated software to screen those on terror blacklists. The US plaintiffs claimed that Hamas, which the US officially designates as a terror group, directed the distribution of the money from the Saudi fund. The Arab Bank Group has more than 600 branches in 30 countries, with assets last year worth $46.4 billion and a shareholders? equity base of $7.8 billion.

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Home Front: WoT

Lawfare: Judge Rules PA, PLO To Face US Trial Over Terror Support

2014-11-21

[Ynet] 11 families of US victims of bombings and shootings in Jerusalem seek $1 billion in compensation from Paleostinian leadership for sanctioning and funding terror attacks. Families of US victims of bombings and shootings in Jerusalem more than a decade ago have cleared a final hurdle to take the Paleostinian Authority and the Paleostine Liberation Organization to trial in New York for supporting the attacks. US District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan largely denied bids by the Paleostinian Authority and the PLO to dismiss the long-running $1 billion lawsuit ahead of a jury trial scheduled for January 12. Read the court's decision At a court hearing on Thursday, Daniels also reaffirmed his decision in 2008 finding that his court had jurisdiction over claims against the Paleostinian Authority and PLO despite changes in law at the appellate level. Mark Rochon, a lawyer for the Paleostinian Authority, said in court his client was "considering whether to seek appellate relief on that issue." He declined to comment after the hearing on Daniels' other rulings. Daniel's ruling on the dismissal motion was issued late on Wednesday. The lawsuit seeks $1 billion on behalf of 11 families who say the PLO and Paleostinian Authority provided material support and resources for seven separate attacks in Israel that killed and injured American citizens. The families accuse the PLO and PA leadership in funding, planning and executing seven terror attacks and fire at Israelis in Israeli territory between 2001 and January 2004 in and around Jerusalem. These attacks led to the death of hundreds of innocent civilians and to the injury of thousands. Among the terror attacks included in the lawsuit are the July 2002 bombing of a cafeteria at the Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus that killed 9 people, including American students, and injured about 100; a terror bombing of bus 19 at the Rehavia neighborhood in Jerusalem, which killed 11 people and injured over 40; a shooting on route 443; a suicide kaboom at the Ben Yehuda Midrachov, which killed 5 people, and others. According to the statement of claims, the Paleostinian Authority "planned and carried out terrorist attacks against civilians through their officials, agents and employees." These attacks were planned and carried out by individuals "acting as agents and employees of the PLO and PA and within the scope of their agency and employment, pursuant to the prior authorization, instructions, solicitations and directives of defendants PLO and PA, in furtherance of the goals and policies of defendants PLO and PA, and using funds, weapons, means of transportation and communications and other material support and resources supplied by defendants PLO and PA for the express purpose of carrying out (these) attack(s) and terrorist attacks of this type." For the first time, the trial will be open to the public and to media reports in real time and evidence that have so far been confidential will be exposed. The plaintiffs claim this evidence is enough to prove the Paleostinian Authority supports terror activity to this very day. "We are looking forward to presenting the evidence to the jury," said Kent Yalowitz, a lawyer for the families. The Paleostinian Authority demanded to reject the suit due to lack of sufficient evidence, but the New York District judge ruled that the evidence brought before him were sufficient to call in a jury and issue a ruling. Prosecutors interrogated a list of Paleostinian Authority officials during the preliminary procedures, including Ahmed Qurei (also know as Abu Alaa), Salam Fayyad ...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either... , Hussein al-Sheikh and many others. Should the case go to a jury, it would mark a rare trial in a lawsuit under the US Anti-Terrorism Act. A federal jury in Brooklyn in September found Arab Bank Plc liable under the law for providing material support to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,. The judge's decision allowing the case to go forward comes amid continued unrest in recent weeks in Jerusalem. On Tuesday, two Paleostinians killed five people at a Jerusalem synagogue during morning services, the worst attack in the city since 2008. The lawsuit, filed in 2004, accused the PLO and the Paleostinian Authority of violating the US Anti-Terrorism Act through support of Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which the US government deems terrorist organizations. The Paleostinian Authority has been battling the lawsuit since 2004 using prominent American attorneys. In his ruling, Daniels said the plaintiffs had presented triable issues over whether the PLO and the Paleostinian Authority directly supported Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades with money, weapons and personnel, as well as by harboring purported terrorists. The judge also said most of the plaintiffs could pursue claims that the Paleostinian Authority was vicariously liable for its employees' alleged participation in attacks in 2001 and 2002. Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the founder of Shurat HaDin, which is leading this lawsuit and representing the families, said: "This is a precedent and a historical decision of the court. We've sued the Paleostinian Authority in the past, and these suits were heard by different federal judges who ruled in them, but this is the first time a trial will be heard by an American jury, a trial that is open to the public and the world media. This is a historic opportunity to call to the stand many PLO and PA officials for an in-depth interrogation about their actions. The PA, the PLO and Abbas will have to answer to these actions." The case is Sokolow v. Paleostine Liberation Organization, US District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 04-00397.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Arab Bank Found Liable for Backing Hamas

2014-09-23

A U.S. jury on Monday said that the Arab Bank provided material support to Hamas, Reuters reported. The jury said that the bank must therefore compensate the victims of two dozen attacks the group allegedly carried out in Israel and Palestinian Authority-controlled territories. The judgment, which followed a closely watched six-week trial in a Brooklyn federal court, came in what lawyers said was the first terrorism financing civil case to reach trial in the United States. Nearly 300 Americans who were either victims or related to victims of the attacks had sued Arab Bank. They accused the Jordan-based bank of knowingly maintaining accounts for Hamas operatives, and financing millions in payments for the families of suicide bombers and those imprisoned or injured during the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, that began in 2000. The bank went on trial in New York on August 14, and a defense lawyer for the bank told the jury last week that there is no evidence that the bank��™s executives supported terrorism. Nothing written in English, anyway... The families of several Americans killed in attacks in the early 2000s allege the bank violated the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act when it served as a conduit for money from a Saudi Arabian fund to the Palestinian Arab families. The lawyer, Shand Stephens, claimed however that Arab Bank provided routine, internationally approved banking services and that none of the charities, which the plaintiffs say were Hamas fronts, were on any terror blacklist. "None of them, not one, nada is on the U.S., UN or EU list during that very time. Not one," he said. The plaintiffs filed their suit in 2004, four years into the Second Intifada terror war that left thousands dead. They said Arab Bank was the conduit by which the Saudi Committee for the Support of the Intifada Al-Quds fund sent money to the families of Palestinian Arabs who died - including suicide bombers. And in a related story from Ynet, it never rains but it pours: US court revives case accusing RBS' NatWest of aiding Hamas A US appeals court on Monday revived lawsuits against National Westminster Bank by about 200 victims of attacks in Israel attributed to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, who are seeking to hold the bank liable for handling transactions linked to the group. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said a lower court judge erred in dismissing the two lawsuits against the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc unit over its dealings with Interpal, a London-based charity linked to Hamas. Writing for a three-judge appeals court panel, Circuit Judge Pierre Leval said the US Antiterrorism Act required a showing only that NatWest knew or was deliberately indifferent to whether Interpal provided material support to Hamas, "irrespective of whether Interpal's support aided terrorist activities of the terrorist organization."

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Home Front: WoT

'No evidence' Arab Bank supported terror, NY trial told

2014-09-19

[Al Ahram] There is no evidence that Arab Bank executives supported terrorism, a defense lawyer told a US jury Thursday at the end of a month-long trial. The Jordan-based multinational went on trial in New York on August 14, accused of aiding terror by transferring support funds to the families of Paleostinians who died in the conflict with Israel. In more than three hours of detailed concluding arguments, lawyer Shand Stephens disputed that the institution made payments to designated gunnies and that those funds were used to bankroll terror attacks. "There's not one word of testimony in this case that would lead you to conclude that any one of those people deliberately supported terrorism. Not a word," he told a district court in Brooklyn. The families of several Americans killed in attacks in the early 2000s allege the bank violated the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act when it served as a conduit for money from a Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... n fund to the Paleostinian families. But Stephens said Arab Bank provided routine, internationally approved banking services and that none of the charities, which the plaintiffs claim were Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, fronts, were on any terror blacklist. "None of them, not one, nada is on the US, UN or EU list during that very time. Not one," he said. The plaintiffs filed their suit in 2004, four years into the Second Intifada, a Paleostinian uprising that left thousands dead. They said Arab Bank was the conduit by which the Saudi Committee for the Support of the Intifada Al-Quds fund sent money to the families of Paleostinians who died, including jacket wallahs. They also claimed that Hamas, which the US officially designates as a terror group, directed the distribution of the money from the Saudi fund. Stephens said that between 2000 and 2004 no government blacklisted the Saudi Committee for terror activity and that its payments to 15,000 people each month were public and approved by Israel. For example, families of Paleostinians who died or were crippled received $5,300. The plaintiffs have questioned 180 of the payments to 24 families of purported Hamas operatives, or about one percent of payments totalling $35 million, Stephens said. "It's not the bank's place to stop payments that have been approved by everybody involved," he said. "You do not punish the family of someone who commits a criminal act. We don't do that in the United States... and they don't do it in the West Bank and Gazoo." No, in Gaza they celebrate and reward them. In the West Bank, too, which American and European governments have been exceedingly careful not to notice.

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Home Front: WoT

Arab Bank Trial: Hamas Official Told Umbrella Hamas-Funding Group They Are 'Room Full Of Terrorists'

2014-08-20

[Jpost] Arab Bank has said there is a lack of proof the funds went to bully boyz or that the funds contributed directly and sufficiently to terror attacks. In one of the key moments of the Arab Bank terrorism-finance trial, plaintiffs showed a video on Tuesday in which a top Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, official told a conference of the Union of Good, the umbrella Hamas-funding group, that they were a room full of terrorists. Hamas expert Dr. Matthew Levitt, who may be the key witness in the case, testified that the Saudi Committee, to which Arab Bank transferred a great deal of money, is essentially an alter ego of Hamas's Union of Good in a "web of charity organizations" providing cover for the funds' terrorist purposes. On Thursday, 297 plaintiffs and Arab Bank defense lawyers made opening statements in what could be a watershed terrorist finance trial, with the plaintiffs telling the jury that "you will see bank records in black and white that say 'Hamas'" as proof that the bank knew it was being used to fund terrorism. One of the lead plaintiffs' lawyers, Mark Werbner, said before New York Federal Judge Brian Cogan that evidence would show that the bank required "all their employees to donate 5 percent of their salaries" to the second intifada. The case involves allegations that Arab Bank, essentially Jordan's sovereign bank and one of the largest in the Middle East, with branches in 30 countries, facilitated massive transfer of funds to Hamas leaders and institutions, as well as to the families of imprisoned Hamas members and jacket wallahs, via Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and Hezbollah's al-Shahid Foundation, mostly between 1998 and 2004. Arab Bank has said there is a lack of proof the money went to terrorists, that the money contributed directly and sufficiently to terrorist attacks and that the bank had any knowledge of a connection to terrorism. Levitt, a former FBI counterterrorism analyst and deputy assistant secretary for intelligence at the US Treasury, has written about Hamas and testified in cases relating to the terrorist group in the past. Levitt said he was there to help the jury learn "Hamas 101," telling them that the funds in question were "absolutely essential, it is the lifeblood" for terrorist groups. He went through a veritable Rolodex of Hamas leaders that the US and other countries designated as terrorists, repeatedly being asked to spell out their names by the court news hound. Levitt talked about the charities working with Hamas, saying, "These weren't stove-piped entities. There's a network working together." He said that the charities operating under Hamas's umbrella don't "put a shingle out there" that says Hamas in the EU or the US, but they openly publicize it in the Paleostinian areas. The political, charitable and bad boy terrorist branches of Hamas work together and support each other like three legs of a stool, he said. Levitt took aim at the bank's main defense, according to which it allegedly checked US terrorist watch-lists, and since the bully boyz who received funds from the bank were not listed it could not be liable — though his attack was subsequently stricken from the official record. "If someone's not designated, [it] doesn't mean they're on a white list," Levitt said. "Just checking the Treasury list is absolutely insufficient." On the flip side, the bank could argue that most of the entities Levitt mentioned were designated after the time at issue in this case. The bank might also say that much of the source material that Levitt used in his testimony is from a later date than the time frame at issue in this case. For example, information Levitt included regarding German designation of certain fund recipients as bully boyz and related intelligence, were neither publicly available nor necessarily accessible to banks during the time covered in the case. Besides Levitt's testimony, graphic footage was shown to explain Hamas's ideology, including images of children dressed as soldiers, with one child dressed as a mock suicide bomber with fake dynamite strapped to his chest, as well as mock kidnappings of an Israeli solider. Another expert on the organizational structure of Hamas, Evan Kohlmann, testified on Monday. The trial continues next week with the plaintiffs' case expected to run for all or most of the week.

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