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Legal News: Israeli Court Orders Attachment of Palestinian Authority Funds Held by Israel, in a Claim by a Terror Victim against the Palestinian Autonomy for Damages

The Tel Aviv District Court has for the first time ordered the temporary attachment of the funds of the Palestinian Authority in the amount of four million shekels, held by Israel’s Ministry of Finance, in a claim brought against the Palestinian Authority by a victim of the terrorist bombing at the Dizengoff Centre shopping mall in Tel Aviv in March 1996.  The victim, 29 years old at the time of the terrorist bombing, has been immobilized and confined to a wheelchair ever since. 

The judge Judith Schitzer ruled that the plaintiff had shown a prima facie right of action against the Palestinian Authority, and that there were reasonable grounds to fear that absent an attachment order, the plaintiff’s ability to collect a damages award in his favour would be prejudiced.  The judge further ruled that the only assets belonging to the Palestinian Authority, from which the victim is able to collect damages (if awarded), were the funds held by the State of Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.  If the State of Israel were for any reason to release the funds which are currently “frozen”, the plaintiff would have no other source for the collection of the damages award.

In the motion for the attachment the plaintiff’s counsel argued that international practice has shown that an armistice or a peace agreement is likely to include terms barring civil claims against the former enemy; therefore, an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, when reached, would be liable to preclude the damages claims of Israeli victims of Palestinian terror; further an agreement might change the current financial arrangement under which the funds of the Palestinian Authority resulting from the collected value added tax are channelled through Israel’s Ministry of Finance.   

Civil case 704/97 Dan Shlomi et al v. the Palestinian Authority et al. (February 13, 2002)

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