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Bekämpar islamisk terror i domstol
Advokat Nitsana Darshan-Leitner dirigerar sin
kampanj på uppdrag av offren för terrorn vilket ger höga böter för terroristerna.
Av Paul Alster
Jerusalem Report | 23 feb 2015
Styrkekällan, advokat Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: Jag tycker om mitt arbete nästan varje vaken minut.
Den 13 januari i New York, började en jury rättegången mot Sokolow vs. PalestinianAuthority (PA), mer än 10 år efter den sjunde i en serie terroristgrymheter i Israel som åtalet hävdar utfördes av palestinier under ledning av PLO, Hamas och al-Aqsa-martyrbrigaden. Åtalet anklagar PA för att vara skyldig och bör betala runt 1 miljard dollars i skadestånd till offren och deras familjer. Trettiotre personer dog och mer än 450 skadades till följd av förödande självmordsbombningar och skottlossning.
Bland dem som har kämpat hårt för att få målet mot PA hört är Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Israels Shurat haDins lagcentrum. Genom hennes organisation har Darshan-Leitner utkämpat ett krig mot terrorismen via de internationella domstolarna och har uppnått anmärkningsvärda framgångar mot Irans centralbank, den libanesiska-kanadensiska Banken och andra, som har sett $150.000.000 hittills återvunnet som styrdes direkt till offren för terror och deras familjer.
Senast hade hon en $ 700.000.000 byggnad på 5th Avenue i New York - som ägs av en iransk bank som bedömdes vara ett instrument för den iranska republiken - konfiskerad av den amerikanska regeringen som resultatet av en dom i USA mot Iran . Intäkterna från försäljningen av byggnaden kommer att gå mot ersättning till offer för iransk-sponsrad terrorism.
Som svar på en fråga om huruvida den senaste tidens Paris terrorattacker har fått Darshan-Leitner att frukta för sitt liv, ler hon och berättar för The Jerusalem Report, "jag oroar mig inte för säkerhet - absolut inte här i Israel. Det är annorlunda när jag reser utomlands, dock. Jag har några säkerhetsarrangemang på plats när jag reser utomlands. "
Efter att ha sett många bilder av henne på tv och tryckta medier, tycker jag att kraftpaketet till advokat var spädare än jag hade väntat mig. Gift med stipendiaten advokat Aviel Leitner är hon mamma till sex barn - åldern mellan 6 och 16 - inklusive 9-åriga trillingar. För de flesta mammor skulle redan att arbeta med sex barn varje dag vara mer än en handfull, men hon medger att hon arbetar 24/7. "Om jag inte är fysiskt på kontoret eller kör ärenden här och där, tänker jag fortfarande på mitt arbete nästan varje vaken minut," sade hon.
Hon erkänner att vara hemifrån så mycket kan vara en utmaning. Hennes föräldrar - som kom till Israel från Iran strax efter bildandet av den judiska staten - ger enormt stöd till sina barn, utan det hade hon inte kunnar hantera det, erkänner hon. Hennes regelbundna resor utomlands var särskilt svårt för hennes barn när de var yngre. "När ditt lilla barn tittar ut genom fönstret och frågar om Mummy är i varje bil som passerar (när Mamma faktiskt är tusentals miles bort och arbetar i USA), kan det vara svårt. Tack och lov, de flesta av mina barn är nu gamla nog att förstå vad jag gör, och är även stolta över att ha en "'berömd' mamma."
Som barn själv verkade den ortodoxa "men inte ultra-ortodoxa" kvinnan, som har fått ett sådan formidabelt rykte i juristkåren, avsedd för en mycket annorlunda karriär - som en klassisk pianist. "Jag spelade piano i 12 år", minns hon. "Jag hade en rysk lärare och spelade professionellt i klassiska konserter. Tyvärr har jag inte fortsatt eftersom jag blev inkallad till IDF [där hon arbetade som ambulanssamordnare], varefter jag gick för att studera juridik vid Bar-Ilan University, där jag gifte under det första året. Jag tog examen, gjorde min lärlingsutbildning, avslutat min MBA vid Manchester University kurs här i Israel, och sedan hade mitt första barn. "
Amerikansk advokat Mark Sokolow tas till en ambulans efter att ha skadats i en självmordsbombning på Jaffa Road, Jerusalem, den 27 januari 2002. En person dödades och 150 skadades i attacken. Sokolow, som överlevde attacken den 11 september på New Yorks World Trade Center,är käranden i rättegången mot PA som hålls i New York.
När kvalificerad, börade den unge advokaten, förutom ordinarie arbete " ta pro bono fall på uppdrag av alla typer av offer. Jag representerade en magdansös som våldtogs av den egyptiska ambassadören; Jag representerade utlämnings fall av judar som var här i Israel och var utlämnats för gärningar i USA och Kanada, som jag tror att de borde vara. Jag representerade kvinnor som våldtogs i mentalsjukhus; fann skandalen i Abu Kabir, där kroppsdelar såldes, eller byttes, etc. Så, när den andra intifadan bröt ut, var det väldigt naturligt för mig att ta ärenden på uppdrag av terroroffer, se om vi kunde stämma dem som begås attackerna."
"År 2000 visste ingen om det fanns möjlighet att stämma en terroristorganisation. Det fanns inga prejudikat. Som en sakfråga, närmades vi senare av en grupp som kom till Israel och ville lära sig att stämma IRA irländska militanta. De såg vad vi gör i våra fall. "
Darshan-LEITNER förklarade för terroroffren eller deras familjer att det fanns ett sätt att slå tillbaka genom domstolarna. De flesta människor gick med på att ha henne agera på deras vägnar och den unga mamman som jagade förövarna genom domstolarna.
"Några av dem kom överens eftersom de behövde pengarna, hade barn som förlorat sina föräldrar, någon hade förlorat sin make. De behövde göra det. Några av dem ville inte ha pengarna - de såg det som blodspengar -. Men ville straffa terrororganisationerna "
Hennes första fallen var den ökända lynchning av israeliska soldater i Ramallah i oktober 2000 som genomfördes av palestinska poliser. Närmarr 15 år senare har det fallet ännu inte avgjorts. Hon ber inte om ursäkt för att ta ärenden mot Israels fiender många , även när den israeliska regeringen själv, ofta för politiska eller diplomatiska skäl, inte är villig att öppet driva fallet.
Det har förekommit en del anmärkningsvärda fall som har körts i strid med regeringens linje och skapat mycket publicitet - senast Målet mot Bank of China som togs i USA av offer för handlingar som begåtts mot israeliska mål genom terrororganisationer, som hade fått sina medel via Bank of Chinas penningöverföringar.
Även originalfilerna som innehåller detaljerad information om den kinesiska bankens förseelser gick vidare till Darshan Leitner av israeliska tjänstemän under 2008, säger hon att hon hade inga illusioner om att regeringen skulle avsluta fallet genom att det ingås. "Jag hade haft tidigare fall där de backade", minns hon. "Du vet, det är en stat, och som en stat förändras deras intressen från tid till annan. Ibland är PA är deras fiende, ibland är det deras allierade. Ibland var Arafat persona non grata, ibland var han den enda att förhandla med. "
Ett övertygande argument byggdes av Shurat Hadin och ett team av amerikanska advokater gickmot Bank of China, som utlovade massiva förgreningar, särskilt när huvudvittnet, en senior israelisk tjänsteman, skulle ta ställning i New York för att ge graverande vittnesmål. Men, ur det blå, enligt uppgift på de specifika instruktioner för premiärminister Benjamin Netanyahu (som snart skulle göra ett första, mycket eftertraktade, officiell resa till Kina), nekades vittnet tillstånd att vittna på grund av "nationell säkerhet. "Beslutet orsakade upprördhet på många håll eftersom ärendet, som var inställt på att slå ett påtaglöigtslag mot finansieringen av den internationella terrorismen, var effektivt underminerat av just de människor som hade anstiftat det.
"Målet mot Bank of China är helt pro-säkerhet, helt pro-fighting terrorism. Det är att blockera pengar som går igenom Bank of China ", Darshan-Leitner förklarar. "Och även om det finns politiker i Israels regering som hindrade fallet och tog ställning till att de måste vara pro-kinesiska nu och vi bör lämna banken ensam, jag håller inte med. Jag håller inte med eftersom jag vet att säkerhetstjänsten är bakom mig. Jag vet att det finns goda skäl till varför vi initierade ärendet och vi måste fortsätta till slutet."
Som svar på en fråga, instämmer hon att hon hade varit mer än besviken på den agerande statsministern. "Från Netanyahu, den vars agenda är att bekämpa terrorismen, handlar det ibland om intressen, ibland till och med personliga intressen, jag är ledsen att säga." Hon kastar mig en blick. "Jag vet inte hur mycket vikt du kan ge till resan till Kina, till de israeliska ekonomiska intressen i Kina. Ärligt talat var det talande att det hände precis innan besöket, utan att rådfråga oss. Det kunde ha gjorts på ett sätt som vulle ha tjänat intressen i kampen mot terrorism, och på ett sätt som också tjänade de nya intressen att Israel somthar hittats i Kina. "
"När jag startar ett fall, kan jag inte släppa det, ändra det eller lämna offren för att Kina plötsligt har blivit en vän till Israel", förklarar hon, uppenbart frustrerad med en situation som även har upprört många i USA. "Domaren själv kände hon, ville pröva målet som startade 2008. Och vittnet själv ville vittna. Du kan inte överge offren. Du kan inte låta Kina gå utan att betala. "Bara några dagar efter att vi diskuterat Bank of China-fallet och några dagar före fallet mot PA öppnade i New York, kom Netanyahu till platsen för mordet på fyra judar från en ISIS-terrorist vid en kosher stormarknad i Paris. "Om världen inte förenar sig nu mot terrorism", förklarade han, "kommer slagen från terrorismen som drabbat här, att öka i en omfattning som knappast kan inses."
En extra aspekt av ärendet som så skakade upp Folkrepubliken Kina och, så småningom, ledande israeliska figurer, enligt Darshan-Leitner, är att trots att det har visats att de skickade pengar till islamistiska terrorgrupper, år 2012, åtalades en person från Västbanken för att ha telegraferat pengar till Gaza via Bank of China. "De hade uppenbarligen inte lärt sig sin läxa", säger hon.
"Jag tror att efter denna episod kommer inte Israel att tillåta någon att vara ett vittne i sådana fall," suckar Darshan-Leitner.
Så vad säger det om Israels mycket omskrivna roll av att vara i frontlinjen i kriget mot den radikala islamistiska terrorismen?
"Det betyder att Israel släpper ett väldigt, väldigt viktigt redskap i kriget mot terrorns finansiering. Det är ett stort misstag. Inte bara jag tror det, men även de säkerhets människor jag är i kontakt med säg det. Den enhet som bildats särskilt för att bekämpa terrorfinansieringen är inte aktiv längre och det skadar också, kampen mot terrorismen. "
Darshan-Leitner syftade på Harpoon, fden speciella underrättelseenheten som skapades av förre Mossadchefen Meir Dagan. Hon hoppas att enheten kommer att återupplivas efter att ha lagts i malpåse för en tid sedan. Enheten, föreslår hon, gjorde saker som varken IDF eller säkerhetstjänsten kunde göra, med hjälp av stämningar och hot om stämningar för att uppnå sina mål.
Ett exempel hon gav var när Tysklands Deutsche Bank medvetet höll ett miljard-dollars bankkonto som ägs av Irans centralbank under en tid innan ekonomiska sanktioner var på plats mot Teheran. Harpoon-Enheten ansåg att pengarna används för att finansiera olika iransk-stödda terrorgrupper och bad Deutsche Bank att stänga kontot. De vägrade. Då Harpoon återvände till den tyska banken och förklarade att det fanns advokater med domar av hundratals miljoner dollar mot Iran som var angelägna om att gå efter bankers holdingfonder för Irans räkning. omprövade Deutsche Bank hastigt och stängde det iranska kontot inom en månad.
"Du kan se att den rättsliga hotet är ett riktigt effektivt verktyg," förklarar Darshan-Leitner .
Målet mot Jordanienbaserade Arab Bank är ett annatt hög-profil åtal som Shurat Hadin, tillsammans med amerikanska kolleger, driver även, återigen, det har ruggsy upp fjädrar bland politiker som är ovilliga att se någon förändring i status quo mellan Israel, Jordanien och USA. Fallet kretsar kring medel som hanteras av Arab Bank och det påstås att deen medvetet överfördes för att finansiera terrorattacker som dödade många israeler och några amerikaner, och skadade många fler. Vissa bedömare menar att om Arab Bank befinns skyldig, kan dominoeffekt utlösa en kollaps av den jordanska ekonomin och äventyra det US-jordanska säkerhetssamarbetet, liksom fredsavtalet mellan Jordanien och Israel.
Bland de senaste fallen Darshan-Leitner bedriver, är en hänvisning om Hamasledaren Khaled Mashaal för krigsbrott för utförandet av 39 palestinier under det senaste kriget i Gaza, medan PA president Mahmoud Abbas - som försökte få PA på väg att ansluta sig till den internationella brottmålsdomstolen (ICC) den 1 april - och tre andra ledande palestinska figurer från Fatah, citeras för att övervaka den urskillningslösa lanseringen av raketer mot israeliska civila. Hon tror att Abbas drag att gå med i ICC är ett enorm takttiskt fel.
"[Abbas] vet att han kommer att gå ner om han går med i domstolen, men han bryr sig inte så länge alla går ner med honom. Han tror att han kan uppnå mer genom att gå med i domstolen och anklaga Israel för krigsbrott än han kan genom förhandling. Det är ett ödesdigert misstag. "
Så, i kölvattnet av den senaste tidens Parisattacker, tror Darshan-Leitner att Europa äntligen har vaknat och nu förstår vilken typ av terror hon försöker bekämpa genom att skära av terroristernas finansiella matarledningar? Hennes svar kom utan att tveka.
"När var US Open i kamp mot terrorismen? Först efter 9/11. Tyvärr har kanske Europa ännu inte drabbats av en tillräckligt stor terroristattack. I USA försökte människor bomba World Trade Center två gånger och de hade terrorattacker här och där innan 9/11. Det var först efter 9/11 att verkligheten i kampen mot terrorn äntligen träffa dem. "
Att trycka hem poängen, avslutar hon, "Just nu, om du vill verkställa dina domar mot Iran eller Syrien i Europa, kommer du fortfarande att få en stängd dörr i ansiktet."
Paul Alster är ett Israel-baserade journalisten. Hans hemsida är www.paulalster.com och han kan följas på Twitter
Battling Islamic Terror in the Courts
Lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner directs her
campaign on behalf of the victims of terror at those
who bankroll the perpetrators
Paul Alster
The Jerusalem Report| February 23, 2015
Powerhouse lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: I think about my work almost every waking minute.
ON JANUARY 13 in New York, jury selection began in the trial of Sokolow vs. the PalestinianAuthority (PA), more than 10 years after the seventh of a series of terrorist atrocities in Israel the prosecution alleges were carried out by Palestinians under the auspices of the PLO, Hamas, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. The prosecution charges that the PA is liable and should pay around $1 billion in damages to the victims and their families. Thirty-three people died and more than 450 were injured as the result of devastating suicide bombings and shootings.
Among those who have fought hard to have the case against the PA heard is Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Israel’s Shurat HaDin law center. Through her organization, Darshan-Leitner has waged a war on terror via the international courts and has achieved notable successes against the Central Bank of Iran, the Lebanese-Canadian Bank and others, which has seen some $150 million so far recovered and passed on directly to the victims of terror and their families.
She has had over $600 million in terror assets frozen in recent years by the US courts in judgments against various sponsors of terrorism, a sum, according to Shurat HaDin’s figures, more than four times the amount frozen by the US government through the same courts on the grounds of confiscation of terror assets. The assets were headed for Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah, and would have contributed to funding further terror attacks against Israeli targets.
Most recently, she had a $700 million building on 5th Avenue in New York – owned by an Iranian bank that was judged to be an instrument of the Iranian Republic – confiscated by the US government as the result of a court judgment in the US against Iran. The proceeds from the sale of the building will go toward compensation for the victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism.
IN RESPONSE to a question whether the recent Paris terror attacks have caused Darshan-Leitner to fear for her life, she smiles and tells The Jerusalem Report, “I don’t worry about my safety – certainly not here in Israel. It’s different when I go abroad, though. I have some security arrangements in place when I travel overseas.”
Having seen numerous images of her on television and the print media, I find the powerhouse lawyer more slightly built than I had anticipated. Married to fellow lawyer Aviel Leitner, she is mother to six children – aged between 6 and 16 – including 9-year-old triplets. For most mothers just dealing with six children on a day-to-day basis would be more than a handful, but she admits that she works 24/7. “If I’m not physically at the office or pursuing cases here and there, I’m still thinking about my work almost every waking minute,” she relates.
She acknowledges that being away from home so often can be challenging. Her parents – who came to Israel from Iran shortly after the creation of the Jewish state – offer tremendous support to her children, without which she acknowledges she wouldn’t be able to manage. Her regular trips overseas were particularly hard for her children when they were younger. “When your small child is looking out of the window and asking if Mummy is in each passing car (when Mummy is actually thousands of miles away working in the US), it can be difficult. Thankfully, most of my children are now old enough to understand what I do, and are even proud to have a ‘famous’ mum.”
As a child herself, the Orthodox “but not ultra-Orthodox” woman, who has gained such a formidable reputation in the legal profession, appeared destined for a very different career – as a classical pianist. “I played piano for 12 years,” she recalls. “I had a Russian teacher and played professionally in classical concerts. Unfortunately, I didn’t continue because I was conscripted to the IDF [where she worked as an ambulance dispatcher], after which I went to study law at Bar-Ilan University, where I got married in the first year. I graduated, did my apprenticeship, completed my MBA at Manchester University's course here in Israel, and then had my first child."
American attorney Mark Sokolow is taken to an ambulance after being injured in a suicide bombing on Jaffa Road, Jerusalem, January 27, 2002. One person was killed and 150 injured in the attack. Sokolow, who survived the September 11 attack on New York’s World Trade Center, is the plaintiff in the trial against the PA being held in New York.
Once qualified, the young lawyer, apart from regular work “began taking pro bono cases on behalf of all types of victims. I represented the belly dancer who was raped by the Egyptian ambassador; I represented extradition cases of Jews who were here in Israel and were extradited for acts in the US and Canada, as I believe they should be. I represented women who were raped in mental institutions; there was the scandal at Abu Kabir in which body parts were sold, or exchanged, etc. So, when the second intifada broke out, it was very natural for me to take cases on behalf of terror victims, seeing if we could sue those who perpetrated the attacks.”
“In 2000, nobody knew there was the option of suing a terrorist organization. There were no precedents. As a matter of fact, we were approached later on by a group who came to Israel and wanted to learn how to sue the IRA Irish militants. They watched what we do in our cases.”
DARSHAN-LEITNER explained to terror victims or their families that there was a way to fight back through the courts. Most people agreed to have her act on their behalf and the young mother pursued the perpetrators through the courts.
“Some of them agreed because they needed the money, kids had lost their parents, someone had lost their spouse. They needed to do it. Some of them did not want the money – they saw it as blood money – but wanted to punish the terror organizations.”
Her first case was the infamous lynching of Israeli soldiers in Ramallah in October 2000 carried out by Palestinian policemen. Approaching 15 years later, that case has yet to be settled. She makes no apology for taking cases against enemies of Israel, cases, which many times, even the Israeli government itself, often for political or diplomatic reasons, is not willing to openly pursue.
There have been some notable cases that have run contrary to the government line and created much publicity – most recently the case against the Bank of China that was brought in the US by victims of acts committed against Israeli targets by terror organizations, which had received their funds through Bank of China money transfers.
Though the original files containing detailed information of the Chinese bank’s wrongdoing were passed on to Darshan Leitner by Israeli officials in 2008, she says she was under no illusions that the government would see the case through to its conclusion. “I’d had previous cases where they backed off,” she recalls. “You know, it’s a state, and as a state their interests change from time to time. Sometimes the PA is their enemy, sometimes it’s their ally. Sometimes Arafat was persona non grata, sometimes he was the only one to negotiate with.”
A compelling case was built by Shurat HaDin and a team of US lawyers against the Bank of China, which promised massive ramifications, especially once the key witness, a senior Israeli official, would take the stand in New York to give damning testimony. But, out of the blue, reportedly on the specific instruction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who was soon to make a first, much sought-after, official trip to China), the witness was denied permission to testify on the grounds of “national security.” The decision caused outrage in many quarters since the case, which was set to strike a telling blow against the funding of international terrorism, was effectively undermined by the very people who had instigated it.
“The case against Bank of China is totally pro-security, totally pro-fighting terrorism. It is to block money that is going through the Bank of China,” Darshan-Leitner explains. “And even though there are politicians in the government of Israel who call to obstruct the case and take the position that they have to be pro-Chinese now and we should leave the bank alone, I don’t agree. I don’t agree because I know that the security services are behind me. I know there are good reasons why we initiated the case and we have to continue to the end.”
In answer to a question, she agrees that she had been more than disappointed at the actions of the Prime Minister. “From Netanyahu, from the one whose agenda is to fight terrorism, sometimes it is all about interests, sometimes even personal interests, I’m sorry to tell.” She casts me a glance. “I don’t know how much weight you can give to the trip to China, to the Israeli economic interests in China. Honestly, it was telling that it happened right before the visit, without consulting us. It could have been done in a way that we would have served the interests of the fight against terrorism, and in a way that also served the new interests that Israel has found in China.”
“When I start a case, I cannot drop it, change it or leave the victims because suddenly China has become a friend of Israel,” she explains, clearly frustrated with a situation that has also upset many in the US. “The judge herself felt she wanted to hear the case that started in 2008. And the witness himself wanted to testify. You cannot abandon the victims. You cannot let China go without paying.” Just days after we discussed the Bank of China case and a few days prior to the case against the PA opening in New York, Netanyahu arrived at the scene of the murder of four Jews by an Islamic State terrorist at a kosher supermarket in Paris. “If the world does not unite now against terrorism,” he declared, “the blows that terrorism has struck here will increase in a magnitude that can scarcely be conceived.”
One extraordinary aspect of the case that so shook up the People’s Republic of China and, eventually, senior Israeli figures, according to Darshan-Leitner, is that despite being exposed as having earlier knowingly sent money to Islamist terrorist groups, in 2012, a money changer from the West Bank was indicted for wiring money to Gaza through the Bank of China. “They clearly had not learned their lesson,” she says.
“I think that after this episode Israel will not allow anyone to be a witness in such cases,” Darshan-Leitner sighs.
So what does that say about Israel’s much publicized role of being on the front line in the war against radical Islamic terrorism?
“It means that Israel is dropping a very, very important tool in the war against terror financing. That’s a big mistake. Not only I think that, but also the security people that I am in touch with say that. The unit that was created specifically to fight terror financing is not active anymore and that, too, harms the fight against terrorism.”
Darshan-Leitner was referring to the Harpoon special intelligence unit that was created by former Mossad chief Meir Dagan. She hopes the unit will be revived after having been mothballed some time ago. The unit, she suggests, did things that neither the IDF nor the security services could do, using lawsuits and the threat of lawsuits to achieve their goals.
One example she gave was when Germany’s Deutsche Bank knowingly held a billion-dollar bank account owned by the Central Bank of Iran at a time prior to financial sanctions being placed place against Tehran. The Harpoon unit believed the money was being used to fund various Iranian-backed terror groups and asked Deutsche Bank to close the account. It refused. Then Harpoon returned to the German bank and explained that there were lawyers with judgments of hundreds of millions of dollars against Iran who were keen to go after banks holding funds on Iran’s behalf. Deutsche Bank hastily reconsidered and closed the Iranian account within a month.
“You can see that the legal threat is a really effective tool,” Darshan-Leitner explains.
The case against Jordan-based Arab Bank is another high profile prosecution that Shurat HaDin, together with American colleagues, is pursuing even though, again, it has ruffled feathers among politicians who are reluctant to see any change in the status quo between Israel, Jordan and the US. The case centers around funds handled by the Arab Bank that it is alleged were knowingly transferred to finance terror attacks that killed many Israelis and some Americans, and injured many more. Some observers suggest that if Arab Bank is found guilty, the knock-on effect could trigger the collapse of the Jordanian economy and jeopardize US-Jordanian security cooperation, as well as the peace deal between Jordan and Israel.
AMONG THE latest cases Darshan-Leitner is pursuing, is one citing Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal for war crimes for the execution of 39 Palestinians during the recent war in Gaza, while PA President Mahmoud Abbas – who set the PA on course to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1 – and three other leading Palestinian figures from Fatah, are cited for overseeing the indiscriminate launch of rockets against Israeli civilians. She believes Abbas’s move to join the ICC is a huge tactical error.
“[Abbas] knows he will be going down if he joins the court, but he doesn’t care as long as everyone goes down with him. He believes he can achieve more by joining the court and indicting Israel for war crimes than he can by negotiation. It’s a fatal mistake.”
So, in the wake of the recent Paris attacks, does Darshan-Leitner believe Europe has finally woken up and now understands the type of terror she is trying to combat by cutting off its financial supply lines? Her answer came without hesitation.
“When was the US open to the fight against terrorism? Only after 9/11. Unfortunately, perhaps Europe has not yet been hit by a significant enough terrorist attack. In the US, people tried to bomb the World Trade Center twice and they had terror attacks here and there before 9/11. It was only after 9/11 that the reality of the fight against terror finally hit them.”
To press home the point, she concludes, “Right now, if you want to enforce your judgments against Iran or Syria in Europe, you’ll still have a door closed in your face.” ■
Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist. His website is www.paulalster.com and he can be followed on Twitter @paul_alster
Copyright 2015 The Jerusalem Reporter. All rights reserved.
Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center
10 Hata'as St. Ramat Gan, 52512 Israel
Phone: 972-3-7514175 | Fax: 972-3-7514174
info@israellawcenter.org
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campaign on behalf of the victims of terror at those
who bankroll the perpetrators
Paul Alster
The Jerusalem Report| February 23, 2015
Powerhouse lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: I think about my work almost every waking minute.
ON JANUARY 13 in New York, jury selection began in the trial of Sokolow vs. the PalestinianAuthority (PA), more than 10 years after the seventh of a series of terrorist atrocities in Israel the prosecution alleges were carried out by Palestinians under the auspices of the PLO, Hamas, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. The prosecution charges that the PA is liable and should pay around $1 billion in damages to the victims and their families. Thirty-three people died and more than 450 were injured as the result of devastating suicide bombings and shootings.
Among those who have fought hard to have the case against the PA heard is Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Israel’s Shurat HaDin law center. Through her organization, Darshan-Leitner has waged a war on terror via the international courts and has achieved notable successes against the Central Bank of Iran, the Lebanese-Canadian Bank and others, which has seen some $150 million so far recovered and passed on directly to the victims of terror and their families.
She has had over $600 million in terror assets frozen in recent years by the US courts in judgments against various sponsors of terrorism, a sum, according to Shurat HaDin’s figures, more than four times the amount frozen by the US government through the same courts on the grounds of confiscation of terror assets. The assets were headed for Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah, and would have contributed to funding further terror attacks against Israeli targets.
Most recently, she had a $700 million building on 5th Avenue in New York – owned by an Iranian bank that was judged to be an instrument of the Iranian Republic – confiscated by the US government as the result of a court judgment in the US against Iran. The proceeds from the sale of the building will go toward compensation for the victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism.
IN RESPONSE to a question whether the recent Paris terror attacks have caused Darshan-Leitner to fear for her life, she smiles and tells The Jerusalem Report, “I don’t worry about my safety – certainly not here in Israel. It’s different when I go abroad, though. I have some security arrangements in place when I travel overseas.”
Having seen numerous images of her on television and the print media, I find the powerhouse lawyer more slightly built than I had anticipated. Married to fellow lawyer Aviel Leitner, she is mother to six children – aged between 6 and 16 – including 9-year-old triplets. For most mothers just dealing with six children on a day-to-day basis would be more than a handful, but she admits that she works 24/7. “If I’m not physically at the office or pursuing cases here and there, I’m still thinking about my work almost every waking minute,” she relates.
She acknowledges that being away from home so often can be challenging. Her parents – who came to Israel from Iran shortly after the creation of the Jewish state – offer tremendous support to her children, without which she acknowledges she wouldn’t be able to manage. Her regular trips overseas were particularly hard for her children when they were younger. “When your small child is looking out of the window and asking if Mummy is in each passing car (when Mummy is actually thousands of miles away working in the US), it can be difficult. Thankfully, most of my children are now old enough to understand what I do, and are even proud to have a ‘famous’ mum.”
As a child herself, the Orthodox “but not ultra-Orthodox” woman, who has gained such a formidable reputation in the legal profession, appeared destined for a very different career – as a classical pianist. “I played piano for 12 years,” she recalls. “I had a Russian teacher and played professionally in classical concerts. Unfortunately, I didn’t continue because I was conscripted to the IDF [where she worked as an ambulance dispatcher], after which I went to study law at Bar-Ilan University, where I got married in the first year. I graduated, did my apprenticeship, completed my MBA at Manchester University's course here in Israel, and then had my first child."
American attorney Mark Sokolow is taken to an ambulance after being injured in a suicide bombing on Jaffa Road, Jerusalem, January 27, 2002. One person was killed and 150 injured in the attack. Sokolow, who survived the September 11 attack on New York’s World Trade Center, is the plaintiff in the trial against the PA being held in New York.
Once qualified, the young lawyer, apart from regular work “began taking pro bono cases on behalf of all types of victims. I represented the belly dancer who was raped by the Egyptian ambassador; I represented extradition cases of Jews who were here in Israel and were extradited for acts in the US and Canada, as I believe they should be. I represented women who were raped in mental institutions; there was the scandal at Abu Kabir in which body parts were sold, or exchanged, etc. So, when the second intifada broke out, it was very natural for me to take cases on behalf of terror victims, seeing if we could sue those who perpetrated the attacks.”
“In 2000, nobody knew there was the option of suing a terrorist organization. There were no precedents. As a matter of fact, we were approached later on by a group who came to Israel and wanted to learn how to sue the IRA Irish militants. They watched what we do in our cases.”
DARSHAN-LEITNER explained to terror victims or their families that there was a way to fight back through the courts. Most people agreed to have her act on their behalf and the young mother pursued the perpetrators through the courts.
“Some of them agreed because they needed the money, kids had lost their parents, someone had lost their spouse. They needed to do it. Some of them did not want the money – they saw it as blood money – but wanted to punish the terror organizations.”
Her first case was the infamous lynching of Israeli soldiers in Ramallah in October 2000 carried out by Palestinian policemen. Approaching 15 years later, that case has yet to be settled. She makes no apology for taking cases against enemies of Israel, cases, which many times, even the Israeli government itself, often for political or diplomatic reasons, is not willing to openly pursue.
There have been some notable cases that have run contrary to the government line and created much publicity – most recently the case against the Bank of China that was brought in the US by victims of acts committed against Israeli targets by terror organizations, which had received their funds through Bank of China money transfers.
Though the original files containing detailed information of the Chinese bank’s wrongdoing were passed on to Darshan Leitner by Israeli officials in 2008, she says she was under no illusions that the government would see the case through to its conclusion. “I’d had previous cases where they backed off,” she recalls. “You know, it’s a state, and as a state their interests change from time to time. Sometimes the PA is their enemy, sometimes it’s their ally. Sometimes Arafat was persona non grata, sometimes he was the only one to negotiate with.”
A compelling case was built by Shurat HaDin and a team of US lawyers against the Bank of China, which promised massive ramifications, especially once the key witness, a senior Israeli official, would take the stand in New York to give damning testimony. But, out of the blue, reportedly on the specific instruction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who was soon to make a first, much sought-after, official trip to China), the witness was denied permission to testify on the grounds of “national security.” The decision caused outrage in many quarters since the case, which was set to strike a telling blow against the funding of international terrorism, was effectively undermined by the very people who had instigated it.
“The case against Bank of China is totally pro-security, totally pro-fighting terrorism. It is to block money that is going through the Bank of China,” Darshan-Leitner explains. “And even though there are politicians in the government of Israel who call to obstruct the case and take the position that they have to be pro-Chinese now and we should leave the bank alone, I don’t agree. I don’t agree because I know that the security services are behind me. I know there are good reasons why we initiated the case and we have to continue to the end.”
In answer to a question, she agrees that she had been more than disappointed at the actions of the Prime Minister. “From Netanyahu, from the one whose agenda is to fight terrorism, sometimes it is all about interests, sometimes even personal interests, I’m sorry to tell.” She casts me a glance. “I don’t know how much weight you can give to the trip to China, to the Israeli economic interests in China. Honestly, it was telling that it happened right before the visit, without consulting us. It could have been done in a way that we would have served the interests of the fight against terrorism, and in a way that also served the new interests that Israel has found in China.”
“When I start a case, I cannot drop it, change it or leave the victims because suddenly China has become a friend of Israel,” she explains, clearly frustrated with a situation that has also upset many in the US. “The judge herself felt she wanted to hear the case that started in 2008. And the witness himself wanted to testify. You cannot abandon the victims. You cannot let China go without paying.” Just days after we discussed the Bank of China case and a few days prior to the case against the PA opening in New York, Netanyahu arrived at the scene of the murder of four Jews by an Islamic State terrorist at a kosher supermarket in Paris. “If the world does not unite now against terrorism,” he declared, “the blows that terrorism has struck here will increase in a magnitude that can scarcely be conceived.”
One extraordinary aspect of the case that so shook up the People’s Republic of China and, eventually, senior Israeli figures, according to Darshan-Leitner, is that despite being exposed as having earlier knowingly sent money to Islamist terrorist groups, in 2012, a money changer from the West Bank was indicted for wiring money to Gaza through the Bank of China. “They clearly had not learned their lesson,” she says.
“I think that after this episode Israel will not allow anyone to be a witness in such cases,” Darshan-Leitner sighs.
So what does that say about Israel’s much publicized role of being on the front line in the war against radical Islamic terrorism?
“It means that Israel is dropping a very, very important tool in the war against terror financing. That’s a big mistake. Not only I think that, but also the security people that I am in touch with say that. The unit that was created specifically to fight terror financing is not active anymore and that, too, harms the fight against terrorism.”
Darshan-Leitner was referring to the Harpoon special intelligence unit that was created by former Mossad chief Meir Dagan. She hopes the unit will be revived after having been mothballed some time ago. The unit, she suggests, did things that neither the IDF nor the security services could do, using lawsuits and the threat of lawsuits to achieve their goals.
One example she gave was when Germany’s Deutsche Bank knowingly held a billion-dollar bank account owned by the Central Bank of Iran at a time prior to financial sanctions being placed place against Tehran. The Harpoon unit believed the money was being used to fund various Iranian-backed terror groups and asked Deutsche Bank to close the account. It refused. Then Harpoon returned to the German bank and explained that there were lawyers with judgments of hundreds of millions of dollars against Iran who were keen to go after banks holding funds on Iran’s behalf. Deutsche Bank hastily reconsidered and closed the Iranian account within a month.
“You can see that the legal threat is a really effective tool,” Darshan-Leitner explains.
The case against Jordan-based Arab Bank is another high profile prosecution that Shurat HaDin, together with American colleagues, is pursuing even though, again, it has ruffled feathers among politicians who are reluctant to see any change in the status quo between Israel, Jordan and the US. The case centers around funds handled by the Arab Bank that it is alleged were knowingly transferred to finance terror attacks that killed many Israelis and some Americans, and injured many more. Some observers suggest that if Arab Bank is found guilty, the knock-on effect could trigger the collapse of the Jordanian economy and jeopardize US-Jordanian security cooperation, as well as the peace deal between Jordan and Israel.
AMONG THE latest cases Darshan-Leitner is pursuing, is one citing Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal for war crimes for the execution of 39 Palestinians during the recent war in Gaza, while PA President Mahmoud Abbas – who set the PA on course to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1 – and three other leading Palestinian figures from Fatah, are cited for overseeing the indiscriminate launch of rockets against Israeli civilians. She believes Abbas’s move to join the ICC is a huge tactical error.
“[Abbas] knows he will be going down if he joins the court, but he doesn’t care as long as everyone goes down with him. He believes he can achieve more by joining the court and indicting Israel for war crimes than he can by negotiation. It’s a fatal mistake.”
So, in the wake of the recent Paris attacks, does Darshan-Leitner believe Europe has finally woken up and now understands the type of terror she is trying to combat by cutting off its financial supply lines? Her answer came without hesitation.
“When was the US open to the fight against terrorism? Only after 9/11. Unfortunately, perhaps Europe has not yet been hit by a significant enough terrorist attack. In the US, people tried to bomb the World Trade Center twice and they had terror attacks here and there before 9/11. It was only after 9/11 that the reality of the fight against terror finally hit them.”
To press home the point, she concludes, “Right now, if you want to enforce your judgments against Iran or Syria in Europe, you’ll still have a door closed in your face.” ■
Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist. His website is www.paulalster.com and he can be followed on Twitter @paul_alster
Copyright 2015 The Jerusalem Reporter. All rights reserved.
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