• Palestinians sue US groups over support for settler attacks | The Electronic Intifada
    http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinians-sue-us-groups-over-support-settler-attacks/12586

    On 17 May, the New York-based commercial law firm Melito and Adolfsen filed a complaint against five US organizations alleging that they had violated the material support statute, which prohibits individuals from “knowingly providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.”

    The organizations are alleged to have supported terrorist activities by funding settlers who have firebombed, thrown stones and shot at Palestinians, burned Palestinian land and trees, and vandalized Palestinian houses of prayer in the West Bank.

    The case is filed on behalf of 15 plaintiffs: 13 Palestinian individuals, one mosque and one Greek Orthodox monastery. All of the plaintiffs have experienced a physical attack or, what is commonly referred to as “price tag” assault, by settlers from nearby Jewish colonies that are given financial support by the defendants of the lawsuit.

    The five organizations cited in the lawsuit are The Hebron Fund, Central Fund of Israel, One Israel Fund, Christian Friends of Israel and American Friends of Ateret Cohanim, all based in New York.

    The complaint argues that without the monetary support of these American organizations, Israeli settlements would not be able to exist.

    America’s courtrooms have played a crucial role in the US global “war on terror.” Under the material support statute in the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the government has prosecuted dozens of individuals and organizations for providing “material support” to “terrorism.”

    Furthermore, over the past dozen years, the courts have seen an increasing number of civil lawsuits filed under a provision within the Anti-Terrorism Act that allows a US national to sue an individual or organization to recover damages from an act of terrorism.

    Twist

    Overall, more than 150 cases have been filed under the material support statute. According to a recently published article in the Harvard Law School’s National Security Journal, the majority of these cases have been brought against Muslim-affiliated organizations and individuals, including, notably, the Holy Land Foundation (“The chilling effect of the ‘material support’ law on humanitarian aid,” May 2013 [PDF]).

    So this latest lawsuit filed under the material support law represents a twist on its established application, but not only because the plaintiffs are Palestinians. Representatives from Melito and Adolfsen explained to The Electronic Intifada that although the alleged acts of terror were committed overseas, the New York district court has jurisdiction in this case because the defendants are all US-based organizations.

    Significantly, these organizations conduct the majority of their fundraising activity within the US — soliciting and raising money under the auspices and with the incentives of US tax law.

    That US organizations that send money to fund settlement activity are able to register for tax-exempt status has been a source of consternation for some time.

    The New York Times reported in 2010 that “at least 40 American groups … have collected more than $200 million in tax-deductible gifts to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the last decade” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/world/middleeast/06settle.html?_r=1&).