US victims of October 7th sue three countries for $4 billion

More than 125 victims and their families want to hold the “Axis of Evil” responsible for their material support of Hamas.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

More than 125 American victims of Hamas’ October 7 massacre and their families filed a lawsuit on Monday against Iran, Syria, and North Korea, demanding $4 billion in damages for their support of the Gazan terrorist organization.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Crowell & Moring law firm filed the suit in federal court in the District of Columbia on their behalf.

They are seeking at least $1 billion in compensatory damages and $3 billion in punitive damages.

“This landmark litigation… is really about holding accountable the Islamic Republic as well as Syria and North Korea for the role that they played in providing finances and training and, of course, munitions to Hamas, enabling the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told CNN.

In the group’s press release on the legal action, the ADL said it was “turn[ing] to the law to create massive disincentives for those engaging in antisemitism, hate or extremism.”

The lawsuit “will bring justice for victims and create a record of Hamas’ heinous brutality,” it added.

One of the plaintiffs they are representing, Nahar Neta, whose American-born and bred mother Adrienne was murdered in her home in Kibbutz Be’eri, said in a statement, “While nothing will ever undo the unbearable pain Hamas caused our family or the brutal losses we’ve suffered, we hope this case will bring some sense of justice.”

The three named countries are known in the West as the “Axis of Evil,” having long been listed by the U.S. government as state sponsors of worldwide terrorism.

Hamas itself is officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel, and many other Western countries.

The ADL’s lead lawyer in the case, James Pasch, is confident of victory.

“There is more than ample precedent for this case,” Pasch said. “U.S. courts have repeatedly held Iran, Syria and North Korea responsible for material support of terrorist attacks that harmed U.S. and dual U.S.-Israeli citizens.”

“There is also clear evidence that these state sponsors of terrorism provided material support to Hamas terrorists for the atrocities on Oct. 7,” he added. “In a world in which Oct. 7 denialism took hold almost immediately after the attack, this case will set the record straight.”

Hamas and fellow terrorists murdered more than 30 American citizens during their rampage through Gazan envelope communities and a dance rave.

In addition, of some 120 hostages they are still holding, eight of them are American. At least a third of those abducted are known to be dead, three of them American.

In these types of lawsuits, which are brought against countries under a special American anti-terrorism law, the defendants rarely send legal representation.

If and when the plaintiffs prove their case, the awarded compensation comes out of the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, which Congress created in 2015 for this purpose.

This fund is financed primarily through the collection of proceeds from asset forfeitures, as the countries themselves almost never agree to pay civil or criminal penalties awarded in court to their victims.

According to the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) as of the end of 2023 this fund was down to $281 million.

In May, a bipartisan group of senators and congressmen proposed a bill requiring the government to ensure that a continuous flow of money replenishes the fund.

The law would allow the fund to now receive cash from the $900 million that the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance Holdings Ltd., must pay for financial transactions made with state sponsors of terrorism.

Other newly legislated sources of funding would be unspent money from the Justice and Treasury Departments’ Forfeiture Funds.