Jerusalem court allows bereaved families to seize $43 million Palestinian Authority funds

The Jerusalem District Court issued a provisional order on Wednesday, allowing a group of Israeli families who have lost members to terrorism to seize 160 million shekels ($43 million) from Palestinian Authority funds that have been frozen by Jerusalem pending proceedings against the P.A., according to Ynet.

If the families win in court, the money will be distributed among the dozens of plaintiffs which would amount to 10 million shekels, or about $2.7 million per family. Not anything equivalent to replacing those who were brutally slaughtered on and after the October 7 attack, but something to help them with in the future, especially if the family has lost the main breadwinner.

The 210 million-shekel claim was filed in early July by dozens of Israeli families whose relatives were killed in recent years, including in the ax attack in Elad on Independence Day in 2022, and the October 7 Hamas massacre at the Supernova festival near the Gaza border.

This lawsuit is the first action taken since the "Compensation for Terror Victims Bill" was passed by the Knesset, requiring courts to award punitive damages of no less than 10 million shekels per death.

To ease the collection of the punitive awards by victims and their heirs, judgments may be enforced against “any property of the defendant, including any property seized or frozen by the State of Israel.”

The families included in the class action base their claim on the fact that Ramallah “encouraged, supported and sanctioned” the attacks in which their loved ones were murdered, their attorney told Ynet in July.

“The war on terror is currently focused in two areas: in the Gaza Strip and in the courtrooms,” said Barak Kedem, attorney at the Jerusalem-based Arbus, Kedem, Tzur law firm in a statement cited by the website.

“In Gaza, our soldiers are fighting terrorism. In the courtrooms, we fight the encouragement of terrorism by the Palestinian Authority, which pays vast monthly salaries to terrorists in exchange for the blood they shed, the blood of righteous and pure men, women and children,” Kedem added, referring to the PA's "pay for slay" policy that pays out monthly stipends to convicted terrorists and to the families of slain terrorists. They call it the Martyr's Fund and grants the money to the terrorists or next of kin for as long as they live.

Since the Oct. 7 massacre in Israeli communities near Gaza, the P.A. has added thousands of Palestinians to its list of those who qualify for terror stipends, an Israeli watchdog reported in January. So anyone who has sympathy for the poor Palestinians needs to understand that they cheered the slaughter on that day and afterward, and despite this fact, Israel still does all it can to limit civilian casualties and provides aid and medical treatment to Palestinians and have done the latter even before October 7.

P.A. officials announced that 3,550 more terrorists imprisoned in Israel would qualify for payouts, as will the families of more than 20,000 slain “martyrs,” according to Jerusalem-based Palestine Media Watch.

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