Posted on 08/21/2002 4:31:37 PM PDT by knighthawk
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is struggling to fend off a barrage of civil suits - totalling Shk1.5bn ($324m) - submitted by Israelis for damages incurred during the intifada.
Although Israeli courts have no jurisdiction over the occupied territories, some plaintiffs are trying to gain control of parts of some $600m in tax monies owed by Israel to the Palestinians since the conflict began in late 2000. Israel recently started transferring the funds after accepting new Palestinian financial controls to ensure transparency.
This week, a Tel Aviv district court ruled in favour of a request by 37 Israeli hotels to freeze Shk100m of those funds pending a forthcoming opinion on the matter by the Israeli attorney-general. The hotels are suing the PA for damages suffered as a result of the collapse of the tourism industry during nearly two years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
Israel's central bureau of statistics recently reported that the number of incoming tourists plunged 41 per cent to 473,000 in the first seven months of 2002. It estimated that the hotel industry had lost Shk3bn in potential revenues and Shk990m in profits during the first 15 months of the intifada.
Jamal Abu Toameh, an Israeli-Arab lawyer representing the PA, told the Financial Times on Wednesday that the PA faced some 20 cases in Israeli courts, ranging from personal damage claims filed by Israelis injured in Palestinian attacks to lawsuits filed by Israeli gas companies that supply the Palestinians.
Egged, the Israeli bus co-operative whose vehicles and passengers have been targets of some of the deadliest Palestinian bombings, is preparing a big legal claim.
Mr Abu Toameh said the hoteliers' case was political and a "ridiculous" attempt to pin the blame for Israel's economic recession solely on the PA and its leaders.
"You cannot possibly say that Yassir Arafat is responsible for the entire tourism crisis in Israel," he said. Noting that Israel's military actions had inflicted billions of dollars of damage on Palestinian infrastructure in the occupied territories, he said: "The damage has been dealt to everyone. You cannot just look at one side."
The Israeli hotels filing the suit, however, argue that by failing to crack down on Palestinian militants the PA is directly liable for the demise of the tourism industry.
"When hotels are about to close because some of them are in such bad shape it's not a question of politics," said Carmit Bar-On, a lawyer representing the 37 hotels. "It is a question of staying alive and trying to get those responsible for these damages."
Ms Bar-On argues that the PA has breached contractual obligations under the peace agreements, by which the Palestinians were responsible for maintaining security and preventing attacks against Israelis.
Lawyers for the Palestinians have not responded directly to the allegations, and have only made preliminary arguments rejecting Israeli jurisdiction.
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