non profit organization industry civil rights founded 2003 tel aviv israel founder nitsana darshan leitner esq. products fighting global terror via the courts website http www.israellawcenter.org shurat hadin israel law center ilc founded in 2003 is a tel aviv based civil rights 1 2 3 non governmental organization focused on representing terror victims jewish issues and israeli causes . the organization uses the power of the courts in litigation against groups and people it accuses of supporting terrorism or being enemies of jews and israel . 4 contents 1 history 2 organization 3 prominent cases 3.1 han kim et al. v democratic people s republic of korea 1 09 cv 00648 rwr 3.2 sokolow v. palestine liberation organization 04 cv 00397 3.3 gaza flotilla 3.4 judgement against iran and syria 3.5 sderot 3.6 alien torts act and the torture victims protection act 3.7 israeli collaborators 3.8 ubs bank 3.9 iranian families and diplomats 3.10 american express bank and lebanese canadian bank 3.11 jimmy carter 3.12 world vision australia 3.13 centre for peace and conflict studies at the university of sydney australia 3.14 case against palestinian authority 4 facebook lawsuit 5 award 6 criticism 7 references 8 external links history edit when shurat hadin was founded in 2003 its stated purpose was to combat terrorism and promote civil rights through research education and litigation . 5 according to its founder nitsana darshan leitner its creation was inspired by the southern poverty law center in the united states which used civil litigation to cripple and bankrupt the ku klux klan and neo nazi groups in the us . 6 a leaked us embassy cable from 2007 records the following description of the organisation s links with the government of israel goi leitner said that in many of her cases she receives evidence from goi officials and added that in its early years ilc took direction from the goi on which cases to pursue . the national security council nsc legal office saw the use of civil courts as a way to do things that they are not authorized to do claimed leitner . among her contacts leitner listed udi levy at the nsc and uzi beshaya at the mossad both key embassy contacts on anti terrorist finance cooperation . 7 organization edit shurat hadin is staffed with activist israeli attorneys and works with numerous other law offices internationally which serve as co counsel on cases being litigated in courtrooms in the u.s canada israel and elsewhere . prominent cases edit shurat hadin has been involved in a range of legal actions in israel 8 and abroad on behalf of civil rights cases . 9 han kim et al. v democratic people s republic of korea 1 09 cv 00648 rwr edit plaintiffs proved claims under the terrorism exception to the foreign sovereign immunities act leading to a 330 000 000 judgement against north korea . this was the first time that a us court concluded that a foreign regime which abducts an individual who is then never heard from again has the burden of proving that he has not been murdered . 10 11 sokolow v. palestine liberation organization 04 cv 00397 edit on february 24 2015 a new york district court jury found the palestine liberation organization plo and palestinian authority pa liable for six terror attacks under the us anti terrorism act . the jury was unanimous in its decision regarding six terror attacks in jerusalem that killed and wounded us citizens . the jury awarded the plaintiffs 218 500 000 which was trebled under the anti terrorism act to 655 500 000 . the plaintiff s argued the defendants provided weapons bombs logistics safe houses and money for these attacks and provided payments to those responsible for the attacks while they were in jail . 12 gaza flotilla edit shurat hadin used lawfare to threaten lawsuits against parties associated with the gaza flotilla . 13 this was accomplished in three ways 1 it informed maritime insurance companies that by insuring sea vessels used by terrorists for delivery of weapons to be used by terrorists they would be liable for future attacks by those terrorists ; 2 it warned inmarsat a u.s. based satellite communications provider that under u.s. law it would be open to charges of aiding and abetting terrorism if it provide services to those gaza bound ships ; and 3 it filed civil lawsuits against the ships that were to participate in the flotilla . 14 judgement against iran and syria edit nitsana darshan leitner of the shurat hadin israel won a case in may 2012 in which she was representing the family of daniel wultz a 16 year old american who was killed in a suicide bomber attack in a tel aviv restaurant in 2006 . the case was tried in a u.s. district court and represented the first time that a u.s. court issued a judgement against syria for terror related activities . the amount of the judgement was 323 000 000 . the court explained that iran and syria were responsible for supporting palestinian militants in that bombing which killed 11 people . 15 16 17 sderot edit on january 7 2008 ten families of sderot israel residents whose relatives were killed or seriously injured by palestinian qassam rockets filed a lawsuit against the egyptian government in the be er sheva district court seeking compensation in the amount of nis 260 000 000 65 000 000 us . the court complaint accuses egypt of intentionally assisting what it calls palestinian terror organizations in smuggling explosives and weapons into the hamas controlled gaza strip . the plaintiffs argue that cairo assists the organizations by authorizing the smuggling of tons of explosives and thousands of weapons into gaza . they also argued that the egyptian government allowed what the group called terrorists to cross back and forth from the egyptian held sinai into gaza permitting them an open route to and from what shurat hadin asserted to be terrorist training bases in states like iran lebanon and syria . alien torts act and the torture victims protection act edit on september 10 2006 shurat hadin and new york attorney robert tolchin filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of the families of 12 missing iranian jews against the former iranian president mohammad khatami . 18 the complaint alleges that the former president was responsible for the kidnapping and torture of their missing family members in iran . the families currently residing in los angeles and israel claim that khatami instituted the cruel policy of making iranian jewish detainees disappear that is imprisoning iranian jews without trials and refusing to provide their families any information concerning their arrests status or whereabouts . the families of the missing jews who are not u.s. citizens brought the suit under special laws the alien tort statute and the torture victim protection act of 1991 which permit foreigners to sue their tormentors for torture and kidnapping in american courts . the plaintiffs are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages against khatami for what they assert to be his role in the ongoing disappearance of their relatives . khatami has refused to answer the complaint and has defaulted the case . israeli collaborators edit on may 1 2008 shurat hadin along with former soviet refusenik ida nudel launched a public campaign to save the life of a palestinian police officer accused of having assisted the israeli intelligence services in hunting down fugitive terrorists . the policeman imad sa ad 19 has been sentenced to death by a palestinian military tribunal in hebron . sa ad it is alleged provided the israel defense forces with the whereabouts of four suspected bomb makers whom the palestinian authority was unwilling to hand over to the israelis . shurat hadin accused the palestinians of having engaged in a show trial that did not permit the defendant a father of four the right to counsel nor the right to call witnesses in his defense . darshan leitner and nudel wrote to then president george w. bush the european union and the vatican to ask for their support . 20 ubs bank edit on may 13 2008 shurat hadin was co counsel in filing in the united states district court for the southern district of new york against the swiss bank ubs 21 which is accused by the plaintiffs of financing terror . the plaintiffs in the case all of whom had family members injured or killed in israel allege that ubs s unlawful eight year long provision of financial services to the islamic republic of iran at the time that the group allege that tehran was providing material support to terrorist organizations renders the swiss bank liable for the harm that has been inflicted upon them and their families . this was the first civil action brought by what the group allege to be american victims of katyusha rocket attacks by hezbollah . the group alleges that the swiss bank was involved in transferring dollars to regimes such as iran cuba and north korea . the ubs operation was uncovered by american soldiers in iraq in 2003 who discovered brand new dollars still wrapped in federal reserve casings behind a wall in saddam hussein s palace . 22 a federal reserve investigation of the currency determined that ubs was responsible for illegally transferring between 4 to 5 billion to states designated by the u.s. as sponsors of terrorism between 1996 and 2004 . 22 at first ubs sought to deny the extent of the money transfers it had provided to iran and others but eventually was compelled to admit the scope of its criminal activities . 22 ubs one of world s wealthiest banks was fined 100 millions by the federal reserve for its conduct . 22 the lawsuit charges ubs which has a branch in new york with aiding and abetting what the group allege to be iran s support of terrorism by illegally providing tehran the dollars it needed to pass along to the terrorist groups for their purchases and attacks . iranian families and diplomats edit on june 30 2008 shurat hadin filed a petition in the israeli high court of justice on behalf of the families of 12 missing iranian jews seeking to block the israeli government from releasing information on the fate of four disappeared iranian diplomats as part of a prisoner exchange deal with hezbollah . the petition was heard on wednesday july 2 2008 . the jews were arrested in the 1990s as they sought to escape from iran across the border with pakistan and they are believed to still be in iranian prisons . the iranian diplomats disappeared in south lebanon in 1982 . the petition demands that the prime minister not authorize the transfer of information regarding the diplomats until such time as reliable and detailed information is received about the missing jews fate . shurat hadin claims it has reliable information that at least one of the jews is still alive and being held as a prisoner in tehran . the families contend that the government must honor the obligations imposed upon it by the israeli high court approximately two years ago in a prior high court proceeding that the israeli government ... push forward diligently without sparing any effort in order to gain information about the 12 missing jews of iran . the families are insisting that there be a quid pro quo on information about their family members in exchange for the release of the details on the fate of the missing iranians . shurat hadin emphasized that the families are not appealing against the deal to bring back the hizbollah captives itself but rather are demanding that the fate of the 12 missing jews be included as a quid pro quo before any information about the diplomats is released . 23 american express bank and lebanese canadian bank edit on july