Palestinian Authority Granted New Trial in Terrorism Damages Suit

[bemildred]

The Palestinian Authority won a major legal victory when a federal judge, in a ruling made public yesterday, agreed to set aside a judgment of nearly $200 million awarded to American victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel and allow a new trial.

Such rulings are rare, and the judge, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero, said that he would vacate the previous legal victory only if the Palestinian Authority put up a $192.7 million bond to ensure that it does not default again if it loses in court. In a ruling Wednesday, he also ordered the Palestinians to reimburse the plaintiffs for previous legal expenses.

But Marrero's decision gives the Palestinian government hope that it can escape from lawsuits that its officials said threatened to bankrupt it. Top Palestinian officials, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, had urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to intervene in the case.

Marrero had earlier sought the Bush administration's opinion on the case, confronting it with a choice between supporting compensation for victims of terrorism and bolstering the Palestinian government as the United States presses for a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The administration ultimately declined to offer an opinion, but noted in a statement to the court that it was concerned that lawsuits by victims of terrorism could harm the "financial and political viability" of the Palestinian Authority -- a statement that Marrero noted in making his decision.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/27/AR2008032703439.html

[Larkspur]

1. Palestinians should sue both Israel and American corporations

supplying Israel with weapons and other stuff used to oppress them. Israel and America in a fair court would pay at least 10 times what the PA is being sued for.

[MaryCeleste]

2. Suppliers are pretty much exempt, as in the Rachel Corrie case

[Larkspur]

3. Yes, the powerful and wealthy can find the most loopholes in the law

or write the laws to exempt their bad conduct.

[MaryCeleste]

5. Caterpillar was scarcely a bad actor in that situation

I am not sure how you can blame most suppliers for the uses their products are put to.

[LeftishBrit]

4. I do wish that all the parties to the conflict...

would use the courts instead of violence, and sue each other instead of bombing each other!

[ProgressiveMuslim]

6. I can't wait until the Palestinian victims of Israeli terror, murder and carnage are able to sue.

My kids might have an inheritance after all!