The district court ruled that accomplices who were tortured in a Palestinian prison will pay a reduced fee in a compensation claim
Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen
Photo:
AFP
Will hundreds of Palestinians who cooperated with Israel and were tortured by the Palestinian Authority begin to file lawsuits against it en masse?
In a precedent-setting decision, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that in the case of collaborators, they would be required to pay a significantly reduced fee to the court, just as we would collect in compensation claims for terrorist acts.
Judge Miriam Ilani's decision was given as part of a lawsuit filed by 60 collaborators with Israel, represented by Adv. Barak Kedem. They claim they were tortured, beaten and abused in a Palestinian Authority prison.
On the other hand, the attorneys representing the authority in the proceeding demanded that each plaintiff pay a fee at the rate of 2.5 percent of the amount of the claim, as required in any “normal” tort claim for damages.
In the present case, it is NIS 250,000, half of which must be paid immediately upon filing the claim.
Adv. Kedem argued that the section of the law should be applied to the lawsuit, which states that in a lawsuit for punitive damages due to an act of terrorism or an act of hostility, the plaintiff will pay a fee of only NIS 1,153.
"The law can be interpreted so that it will also apply in cases where torture and abuse have been alleged, in order to intimidate the Palestinian population from cooperating with the State of Israel," Judge Ilani explained in her decision.
Adv. Barak Kedem: "The State Attorney's Office and the court have adopted our position of comparing the Palestinian collaborating community with Israeli victims of terrorism. This is a significant contribution to building a united front in the war on terror."