Israeli victims target terror-supporting Arab Bank in billion-dollar class-action suit

The lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of Israelis follows the settlement the bank had to pay last year in a case brought in the U.S. by American victims of terror.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

More than a thousand Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism have banded together to sue the Jordan-based Arab Bank PLC for knowingly supporting terrorism, Israel Hayom reported Tuesday.

They are demanding 20 billion shekels in compensation. It is the first time Israelis have targeted a bank for its involvement in terror, Israel Hayom reports.

They are charging the financial institution with systematically supporting, aiding, funding and encouraging acts of terror in Israel by operatives of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah and other organizations.

The law firms representing the 1,132 people injured in terrorist attacks and families of those killed, MM Law and Markman & Tomashin, further claim that the bank’s CEO even established a support fund for terrorists and their families, to which he would contribute $500,000, and the bank promised a further $2 million.

The case will focus on attacks perpetrated between 1995 and 2005, a time period when hundreds of Israelis were murdered and thousands injured in the Jewish state after the Oslo peace accords were signed, the Palestinian Authority (PA) was created, and PA President Yasser Arafat instigated the Second Intifada.

Some of the more infamous suicide bombings cited in the lawsuit were the Dolphinarium (2001),  Sbarro (2001) and Park Hotel (2002) attacks.

At the Dolphinarium, a Tel Aviv nightclub, most of the 21 killed and 120 injured were youths. The Sbarro pizza shop bombing in the heart of Jerusalem killed 15 and wounded over 100. The terrorist who blew himself up in the Netanya Park Hotel murdered 30 and wounded 160 who had gathered for the Passover Seder.

This lawsuit follows a successful U.S. suit against the Arab Bank on similar charges.

In 2014, 10 years after the case was first brought, a Brooklyn, N.Y. federal jury unanimously found the bank liable for knowingly providing financial services to a group that the U.S. had long designated as a terrorist organization – Hamas.

The 527 plaintiffs, all American citizens, proved that Arab Bank had consciously maintained accounts for Hamas leaders and organizations and facilitated millions of dollars’ worth of bank transfers to Hamas operatives and families of suicide bombers.

It was the first time that a financial institution was found liable under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act, which until then had been used to sue terrorist organizations like the PLO and terror-supporting countries like Iran.

While the bank appealed the verdict, it also came to an agreement with the plaintiffs on a settlement whose size would depend on whether it lost or won the appeal. This would save both sides from having to engage in another expensive, years-long trial, and guarantee that the plaintiffs would receive compensation.

In 2018, while confirming the essential truth of the claims, a federal appeals court overturned the verdict due to the trial judge having given the jury incorrect instructions. Although the exact amount the plaintiffs then received due to the prior agreement was confidential, it was reported that Arab Bank had set aside $1 billion for the terror victims and their families.