Shurat HaDin
Encyclopedia
Shurat HaDin, Israel Law Center (ILC), founded in 2003, is a Tel Aviv
-based NGO focused on using litigation to fight against terrorism.
and promote civil rights
through research
, education
and litigation."
According to its founder, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
, its creation was inspired by the Southern Poverty Law Center
in the United States
, which used civil litigation to cripple and bankrupt the Ku Klux Klan
, and other neo-Nazi groups in the US.
, Israel
and elsewhere.
(Israel) residents, whose relatives were killed or seriously injured by Palestinian Kassam rockets, filed a lawsuit against the Egypt
ian government in the Be'er Sheva District Court seeking compensation in the amount of NIS 260,000,000 ($65,000,000 US). The court complaint accuses Egypt of intentionally assisting the Palestinian terror organizations in smuggling explosives and weapons into the Hamas controlled Gaza strip.
The plaintiffs argue that Cairo assists the terror organizations by authorizing the smuggling of tons of explosives and thousands of weapons into Gaza. The Egyptian government also allows terrorists to cross back and forth from the Egyptian held Sinai into Gaza
, permitting them an open route to and from terrorist training bases in states
like Iran
, Lebanon
and Syria
.
attorney Robert Tolchin filed a law suit in federal court on behalf of the families of 12 missing Jewish-Iranians against the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. The complaint alleges that the former president was responsible for the kidnapping and torture of their missing family members in Iran. The families, currently residing in Los Angeles and Israel, claim that Khatami instituted the cruel policy of making Iranian Jewish detainees "disappear" – that is imprisoning Iranian Jews without trials and refusing to provide their families any information concerning their arrests, status or whereabouts.
The families of the missing Jews, who are not U.S. citizens, brought the suit under special laws – the Alien Torts Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act – which permit foreigners to sue their tormentors for torture and kidnapping in American courts. The plaintiffs are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages against Khatami for his role in the on-going disappearance of their loved ones. Khatami has refused to answer the complaint and has defaulted the case.
launched a public campaign to save the life of a Palestinian police officer accused of having assisted the Israeli intelligence services in hunting down fugitive terrorists. The policeman, Imad Sa'ad has been sentenced to death by a Palestinian military tribunal in Hebron. Sa'ad, it is alleged, provided the Israel Defense Forces with the whereabouts of four suspected bomb makers whom the Palestinian Authority was unwilling to hand over to the Israelis.
Shurat HaDin accuses the Palestinians of having engaged in a sham trial that did not permit the defendant, a father of four, to be represented by counsel nor call witnesses in his defense. There are no appeals from Palestinian military tribunal even in capital cases. Darshan-Leitner and Nudel have written to President Bush, the European Union and the Vatican.
The plaintiffs in the case, all of whom had family members injured or killed in Israel, allege that UBS's unlawful eight year-long provision of financial services to the Islamic Republic of Iran at the time that Tehran was providing material support to terrorist organizations renders the Swiss bank liable for the harm that has been inflicted upon them and their families. This was the first civil action brought by American victims of Hizbollah's katyusha rocket attacks.
The allegations against UBS center around the Swiss bank's involvement in transferring dollars to outlaw regimes such as Iran, Cuba, and North Korea. The UBS operation was uncovered by American soldiers in Iraq in 2003 who discovered brand new dollars, still wrapped in Federal Reserve casings behind a wall in Saddam Huessein's palace. A Federal Reserve investigation of the currency determined that UBS was responsible for illegally transferring between $4 to $5 billion to states designated by the U.S. as sponsors of terrorism between 1996 and 2004. At first UBS sought to deny the extent of the money transfers it had provided to Iran and others, but confronted with overwhelming evidence, eventually was compelled to admit the scope of its criminal activities. UBS, one of world's wealthiest banks, was fined a $100 millions by the Federal Reserve for its conduct.The lawsuit charges UBS, which has a branch in New York, with aiding and abetting Iran's support of terror by illegally providing Tehran the dollars it needed to pass along to the terrorist groups for their purchases and attacks.
The petition demands that the Prime Minister not authorize the transfer of information regarding the diplomats until such time as reliable and detailed information is received about the missing Jews' fate. The families of the missing Jews have never received any acknowledgment of their loved ones' arrests, status or whereabouts from the Islamic regime.
Shurat Hadin claims it has reliable information that at least one of the Jews is still alive and being held as a prisoner in Tehran. The families contend that the government must honor the obligations imposed upon it by the Israeli High Court approximately two years ago, in a prior High Court proceeding, that [the Israeli government] "Push forward diligently without sparing any effort in order to gain information about the [12 missing] Jews of Iran." The families are insisting that there be a "quid pro quo
" on information about their family members in exchange for the release of the details on the fate of the missing Iranians.
Shurat HaDin emphasized that, the families' are not appealing against the deal to bring back the Hizbollah captives itself but rather are demanding that the fate of the 12 missing Jews be included as a "quid pro quo" before any information about the diplomats is released.
Representing some 85 victims and their family members, the Shurat HaDin law suit alleges that the American Express
Bank, Ltd. and the Lebanese-Canadian Bank (LCB) unlawfully executed millions of dollars in wire transfers for Hizbollah between 2004 and 2006. The plaintiffs assert that Hizbollah used the funds transferred by AMEX
Bank and LCB to prepare and carry out the rocket attacks which the terrorist organization rained on Israeli cities between July 12 and August 14, 2006.
The plaintiffs rested their claims in part on written findings issued by the New York State Banking Department
in 2007, which determined that AMEX
Bank had failed to establish adequate procedures to prevent terrorism financing as demanded by state and federal law. This is the first lawsuit brought by terror victims against an U.S. financial institution that serves as a correspondent for a bank in Lebanon.
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
-based NGO focused on using litigation to fight against terrorism.
History
When Shurat hadin was founded in 2003 its stated purpose was to "combat terrorismTerrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
and promote civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
through research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
and litigation."
According to its founder, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is a controversial Israeli lawyer, Human rights activist and founder of Shurat Hadin Israeli Law Center. She is known for her legal activism, especially campaigns to sue terror organizations and terrorists on behalf of victims...
, its creation was inspired by the Southern Poverty Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, which used civil litigation to cripple and bankrupt the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
, and other neo-Nazi groups in the US.
Organization
Shurat HaDin is staffed with activist Israeli attorneys and works with numerous other law offices internationally which serve as co-counsel on cases being litigated in courtrooms in the U.S, CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and elsewhere.
Prominent Cases
Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center has been involved in a wide-range of legal actions in Israel and abroad on behalf of civil rights cases.Sderot
On January 7, 2008, ten families of SderotSderot
Sderot is a western Negev city in the Southern District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 20,700. The city has been an ongoing target of Qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip...
(Israel) residents, whose relatives were killed or seriously injured by Palestinian Kassam rockets, filed a lawsuit against the Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian government in the Be'er Sheva District Court seeking compensation in the amount of NIS 260,000,000 ($65,000,000 US). The court complaint accuses Egypt of intentionally assisting the Palestinian terror organizations in smuggling explosives and weapons into the Hamas controlled Gaza strip.
The plaintiffs argue that Cairo assists the terror organizations by authorizing the smuggling of tons of explosives and thousands of weapons into Gaza. The Egyptian government also allows terrorists to cross back and forth from the Egyptian held Sinai into Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
, permitting them an open route to and from terrorist training bases in states
like Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
.
Alien Torts Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act
On September 10, 2006, Shurat HaDin and New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
attorney Robert Tolchin filed a law suit in federal court on behalf of the families of 12 missing Jewish-Iranians against the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. The complaint alleges that the former president was responsible for the kidnapping and torture of their missing family members in Iran. The families, currently residing in Los Angeles and Israel, claim that Khatami instituted the cruel policy of making Iranian Jewish detainees "disappear" – that is imprisoning Iranian Jews without trials and refusing to provide their families any information concerning their arrests, status or whereabouts.
The families of the missing Jews, who are not U.S. citizens, brought the suit under special laws – the Alien Torts Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act – which permit foreigners to sue their tormentors for torture and kidnapping in American courts. The plaintiffs are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages against Khatami for his role in the on-going disappearance of their loved ones. Khatami has refused to answer the complaint and has defaulted the case.
Israeli Collaborators
On May 1, 2008, Shurat HaDin along with former Soviet Prisoner of Zion, Ida NudelIda Nudel
Ida Nudel is a former refusenik and an Israeli activist. She was known as the "Guardian Angel" for her efforts to help the "Prisoners of Zion" in the Soviet Union.-Biography:...
launched a public campaign to save the life of a Palestinian police officer accused of having assisted the Israeli intelligence services in hunting down fugitive terrorists. The policeman, Imad Sa'ad has been sentenced to death by a Palestinian military tribunal in Hebron. Sa'ad, it is alleged, provided the Israel Defense Forces with the whereabouts of four suspected bomb makers whom the Palestinian Authority was unwilling to hand over to the Israelis.
Shurat HaDin accuses the Palestinians of having engaged in a sham trial that did not permit the defendant, a father of four, to be represented by counsel nor call witnesses in his defense. There are no appeals from Palestinian military tribunal even in capital cases. Darshan-Leitner and Nudel have written to President Bush, the European Union and the Vatican.
UBS bank
On May 13, 2008, Shurat HaDin was co-counsel in filing in Manhattan Federal Court against the Swiss bank, UBS which is accused by the plaintiffs of financing terror.The plaintiffs in the case, all of whom had family members injured or killed in Israel, allege that UBS's unlawful eight year-long provision of financial services to the Islamic Republic of Iran at the time that Tehran was providing material support to terrorist organizations renders the Swiss bank liable for the harm that has been inflicted upon them and their families. This was the first civil action brought by American victims of Hizbollah's katyusha rocket attacks.
The allegations against UBS center around the Swiss bank's involvement in transferring dollars to outlaw regimes such as Iran, Cuba, and North Korea. The UBS operation was uncovered by American soldiers in Iraq in 2003 who discovered brand new dollars, still wrapped in Federal Reserve casings behind a wall in Saddam Huessein's palace. A Federal Reserve investigation of the currency determined that UBS was responsible for illegally transferring between $4 to $5 billion to states designated by the U.S. as sponsors of terrorism between 1996 and 2004. At first UBS sought to deny the extent of the money transfers it had provided to Iran and others, but confronted with overwhelming evidence, eventually was compelled to admit the scope of its criminal activities. UBS, one of world's wealthiest banks, was fined a $100 millions by the Federal Reserve for its conduct.The lawsuit charges UBS, which has a branch in New York, with aiding and abetting Iran's support of terror by illegally providing Tehran the dollars it needed to pass along to the terrorist groups for their purchases and attacks.
Iranian Families and Diplomats
On June 30, 2008, Shurat HaDin filed a petition in the Israeli High Court of Justice on behalf of the families of 12 missing Iranian Jews seeking to block the Israeli government from releasing information on the fate of four disappeared Iranian diplomats as part of the prisoner release deal with Hizbollah. The petition was heard on Wednesday, July 2, 2008. The Jews were arrested in the 1990s as they sought to escape from Iran across the border with Pakistan and they are believed to still be in Iranian prisons. The Iranian diplomats were captured by Christian militia forces, the Samir Jaja faction, in South Lebanon in 1982.The petition demands that the Prime Minister not authorize the transfer of information regarding the diplomats until such time as reliable and detailed information is received about the missing Jews' fate. The families of the missing Jews have never received any acknowledgment of their loved ones' arrests, status or whereabouts from the Islamic regime.
Shurat Hadin claims it has reliable information that at least one of the Jews is still alive and being held as a prisoner in Tehran. The families contend that the government must honor the obligations imposed upon it by the Israeli High Court approximately two years ago, in a prior High Court proceeding, that [the Israeli government] "Push forward diligently without sparing any effort in order to gain information about the [12 missing] Jews of Iran." The families are insisting that there be a "quid pro quo
Quid pro quo
Quid pro quo most often means a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. English speakers often use the term to mean "a favour for a favour" and the phrases with almost identical meaning include: "give and take", "tit for tat", "this for that", and "you scratch my back,...
" on information about their family members in exchange for the release of the details on the fate of the missing Iranians.
Shurat HaDin emphasized that, the families' are not appealing against the deal to bring back the Hizbollah captives itself but rather are demanding that the fate of the 12 missing Jews be included as a "quid pro quo" before any information about the diplomats is released.
American Express Bank and Lebanese-Canadian Bank
On July 14, 2008, Shurat HaDin and Attorney Robert Tolchin of New York filed suit against an American Bank accusing it of a role in transferring money for Hizbollah. The action was filed in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.Representing some 85 victims and their family members, the Shurat HaDin law suit alleges that the American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
Bank, Ltd. and the Lebanese-Canadian Bank (LCB) unlawfully executed millions of dollars in wire transfers for Hizbollah between 2004 and 2006. The plaintiffs assert that Hizbollah used the funds transferred by AMEX
AMEX
AMEX, AmEx or Amex may refer to:*American Stock Exchange*American Express, a global financial services corporation*American Express Community Stadium, association football stadium in Brighton, England, currently sponsored by American Express...
Bank and LCB to prepare and carry out the rocket attacks which the terrorist organization rained on Israeli cities between July 12 and August 14, 2006.
The plaintiffs rested their claims in part on written findings issued by the New York State Banking Department
New York State Banking Department
The New York State Banking Department was created by the New York Legislature on April 15, 1851, with a chief officer to be known as the Superintendent...
in 2007, which determined that AMEX
AMEX
AMEX, AmEx or Amex may refer to:*American Stock Exchange*American Express, a global financial services corporation*American Express Community Stadium, association football stadium in Brighton, England, currently sponsored by American Express...
Bank had failed to establish adequate procedures to prevent terrorism financing as demanded by state and federal law. This is the first lawsuit brought by terror victims against an U.S. financial institution that serves as a correspondent for a bank in Lebanon.
External links
- Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center Official Website