The U.S. District Court, in the District of Columbia in the state of Washington, ruled that the governments of Iran and Syria must compensate American citizens whose family members were murdered and injured in Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The amount of compensation amounts to more than 171 million dollars, and compensations were added to them Penalties of about 343 million dollars.
The lawsuit was filed by the families of Taylor Force, a business administration student who was murdered in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv in March 2016 by a terrorist from Hamas;
of Richard Lakin, a former school principal who was murdered by two Hamas terrorists on a bus in Jerusalem in October 2015;
of Avraham Mozes, a 15-year-old high school student who was shot to death in an attack in the center of Jerusalem in 2008, as well as of Naftali Shetrit who was injured in the same attack.
The court ruled that Iran and Syria have vicarious responsibility for the terrorist attacks due to the provision of budgetary support and funding to Hamas, after finding that their financial support, the supply of weapons and training were a decisive factor in helping Hamas' ability to harm civilians in the terrorist attacks.
The verdict was given in the absence of a defense, since the two countries did not send lawyers to the proceedings on their behalf.
The families of the victims of terrorism were represented by lawyers Robert J. Tolchin from New York and Nitsana Darshan-Leitner from Israel.
Dr. Roy Scheindorf, former Deputy Ombudsman (International Law) and a global expert on international law, explained to "Israel Today" that "the American verdict is important for two reasons. The first is psychological. An important court determined the responsibility of the Syrian states and Iran for terrorist attacks carried out in Israel. The court placed responsibility for the results of terrorist acts on those who finance this activity. This is an important message.
"The second reason - there are precedents where victims of terrorism were actually able to receive compensation within similar procedures. Although it is not easy to enforce judgments against countries like Iran and Syria, it is not impossible. The winners will have to locate assets in countries that are willing to enforce American judgments, and ask the courts in those states to realize the judgments from these assets. There is a significant challenge to locate such assets, and the legal procedure is also relatively complicated, but it is not impossible, and with such amounts it can also justify the effort."
The president of Shurat Hadin, attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, who represented the families: "This is a historic verdict for families who suffered so much from the murderous acts of terrorist organizations.
It sends a powerful message to the regimes in Tehran and Damascus, that their continued financial support and material resources to Hamas will make them bear the consequences and responsibility for any attack that happens in Israel.
The law does not differentiate between who pulled the trigger or sent the check to the terrorist.
Anyone who terrorizes innocent citizens - we will continue to hunt him down in the courts and pursue him until justice is achieved."
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