Legal Battle Against Palestinian Terrorism Takes New Turn (Updated)

The Telegraph calls it 'a landmark legal challenge'.

In the past, legal action against Palestinian terrorists was focused in the US, where those who aided those terrorists were put on trial, or the terrorist groups themselves were sued for damages.

Now, the focus has changed from the US to Europe--and the EU itself is being sued:

Mr Katorza has demanded EU "reparations for lost job income, reparations for
physical and psychological damages, reparations for property damages, monies for
reinforced buildings against missiles or any other military projectiles".

The dual French-Israeli citizen, from Sderot in Israel's Negev region, has lost his
job and family business because of Qassam rocket attacks launched from the Gaza
strip by Hamas.

His lawyers have cited clauses in the EU Treaties that offer protection to Europeans even while they are living abroad.

It is not merely an issue of the EU fulfilling their apparent obligation to protect the 300,000 Europeans living in Israel--according to Katorza, the EU is at the same time guilty of aiding Hamas because it has failed to

prevent the misuse of European funds by non-profit organisations which use
these funds to finance terrorism.

Katorza's lawyer adds

The EU grants hundreds of millions of euros a year in aid to Gaza, and it is
inconceivable that European citizens should be harmed by money supplied by the
EU. It's time that the EU takes responsibility.

The Jerusalem Post is providing an email contact for those Europeans in Israel who live withing range of the Hamas rockets and want to join in the lawsuit.

For its part, the US has not done much to protect its citizens either--nor to punish American citizens who are murdered by Palestinian terrorists. On October 15, 2003, 3 Americans were murdered. Jeff Jacoby reported at the time:

Three Americans -- John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Martin Linde -- were
murdered last Wednesday when terrorists in Gaza bombed the diplomatic convoy
they were riding in. News accounts immediately described the attack as a first
-- "an unprecedented deadly attack on a U.S. target in the Palestinian
territories," to quote the Associated Press. But Branchizio, Parson, and Linde
were not the first Americans to be murdered by Palestinian terrorists. They were
the 49th, 50th, and 51st in the past 10 years alone. A few hours after their
deaths, the White House condemned "the vicious act of terrorism" that killed
them, extended "heartfelt condolences to the families," and promised "to bring
the terrorists to justice."

At the time, the PA went through the motions of apprehending the killers:

Following the attack, PA Leader Yasser Arafat at first arrested three low-level
members of the splinter organization Popular Front and held a quick trial that
the U.S. called a sham, but he later caved into pressure and admitted the three
may not have been involved in the attack. The perpetrators remain at large.

One year later, in October 2004, the topic came up again when:

a senior Palestinian official publicly admitted for the first time he knows
the identity of the killers.

Musa Arafat, the head of PA military intelligence and a cousin of Yasser
Arafat, said, "The Palestinian security forces know who was behind the killing
of three Americans in Gaza nearly a year ago, but cannot act against the
factions while the fighting with Israel continues."

The last effort made on behalf of the murdered Americans came last year with the sponsoring of HR 2293:

To require the Secretary of State to submit to Congress a report on efforts
to bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark
Parson, and John Marin Linde.

You can see what progress was made on the bill at GovTrack.us:

• May 14, 2007: the bill was introduced by Rep. Gary Ackerman (D, NY)
  
• June 26, 2007: the bill was reported by Committee
  
• July 16, 2007: the bill was passed by the House by a voice vote
  
• July 17, 2007: the bill was received in the Senate, read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

The New York Sun noted on January 2, 2008 that the bill:

is now languishing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where three
Democrats on the panel, Joseph Biden, Christopher Dodd, and Barack Obama, were
too busy running for president to forward the bill to the full Senate.

Israel Matzav, at the time, went into detail on the failure of the White House to pursue this matter.

The murder of these 3 Americans is among the topics that Obama did not find time to mention in his Cairo speech either. It remains to be seen whether the EU will follow through on its legal responsibilities and do more to protect its citizens in Israel than the US has.

UPDATE: Barry Rubin writes that the terrorist who murdered John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde was himself killed by Israel last year.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Sderot and Eyal Katorza and John Branchizio and Mark Parson and John Martin Linde Jr.