Israel-PalestineCourt dismisses case against U.S. charities supporting West Bank settlers
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman has ruled that plaintiffs describing themselves as residents of “Occupied Palestine” cannot proceed with claims that five U.S.-based organizations have funded attacks against Palestinians. The thirteen men and women — two Americans, ten Palestinians, and one Greek — argued that a portion of the territory where they reside is “within the internationally recognized borders of the future Palestinian state.”Furman deemed the allegation “entirely conclusory.”
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman has ruled that residents of “Occupied Palestine” cannot proceed with claims that five U.S.-based organizations have funded attacks against Palestinians.
The thirteen men and women — two Americans, ten Palestinians, and one Greek — argued that a portion of the territory where they reside is “within the internationally recognized borders of the future Palestinian state.” According to the claim, more than 500,000 Israeli citizens or “settlers,” live in “Occupied Palestine,” or a portion of the West Bank, an act which violates international law. Israeli citizens living in the territory are accused of assaulting Palestinian residents through stoning, fire bombings, shootings, beatings, and vandalism, all intended to “coerce, intimidate, and influence the Israeli government and public and thereby ultimately bring the expulsion of the Palestinian residents from Occupied Palestine,” according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs claimed that Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, the Hebron Fund Inc., the Central Fund of Israel, One Israel, and American Friends of Ateret Cohanim send money to the settlers to “build and maintain the illegal settlements, illegally take land in Occupied Palestine, to support the attacks by the settlers on Palestinians living in Occupied Palestine, and to support the terrorist acts of the settlers against Palestinians and other persons in Occupied Palestine.”
Courthouse News Service reports that the Americans in the case alleged that five “purported charities” based in the United States provided Israeli settlers with millions of dollars through direct wire transfers. On Monday, Judge Furman ruled that the allegations in the complaint were insufficient to connect the funds to terrorist activity.
Judge Furman deemed the allegation “entirely conclusory.” “The American plaintiffs do not (and cannot) allege that the settlers are a designated terrorist organization,” the 10-page opinion states. “Nor do they allege that the settlers have publicly stated terrorist goals or are associates of established terrorist organizations.”
Judge Furman also dismissed claims that the settlers admitted their participation in “Price Tag” attacks – non-lethal attacks by extremists among the Jewish settlers against Palestinian property, property owned by Israeli Arabs, and violent demonstrations against Israeli military and police trying to dismantle illegal settlements in the West Bank.
The plaintiffs failed to submit proof that the settlers admitted to the Price Tag attacks, nor did the plaintiffs prove that the American organizations were aware that their funds were used to support terrorist activity. “In the absence of such details, there are simply no facts alleged that could provide the court with a basis to infer that defendants knew, or were deliberately indifferent to, the fact that the wire transfers would be used to support terrorist activity,” Furman wrote.
