Terror victims holding an American federal court judgment against the Hamas organization have legally restrained more than $11 million belonging to the terrorist group.

On Feb. 5, Egyptian officials stopped Hamas leader Ayman Taha at the Rafah border crossing from entering into Gaza with suitcases containing millions of dollars in cash.

Although Mr. Taha insisted that he be allowed to bring the funds into Gaza, the Egyptians refused and required him to deposit the funds in the National Bank of Egypt’s (NBE) branch in al-Arish in the northern Sinai.

Attorneys for the terror victims immediately served a restraining order on the NBE’s American branch at 40 East 52nd St. in New York. The restraining notice informed the NBE that the plaintiffs have an unsatisfied judgment, owed to them by Hamas in the amount of $116 million and warned the NBE against paying out the deposited funds or permitting the withdrawal of the funds by Hamas.

<!–
AdSys ad not found for news/world:instory –>

Moreover, it places the NBE on notice its Egypt’s government ownership does not grant it sovereign immunity from garnishment proceedings pursuant to the U.S. Terror Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA). Victims of Hamas terror attacks had lobbied for the law.

As TRIA provides: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law… in every case in which a person has obtained a judgment against a terrorist party on a claim based upon an act of terrorism the blocked assets of that terrorist party shall be subject to execution or attachment in aid of execution in order to satisfy such judgment.”

According to Shurat HaDin director Attorney Nitsana Darshan Leitner, press reports that Egypt harbors Hamas money in trust “are erroneous.”

“The funds have now been restrained and cannot be moved by the Egyptian government nor Hamas,” she said. “They will be paid to the terror victims. Shurat HaDin’s earlier legal actions against banking institutions providing services to Gaza have been highly effective, and Hamas is now being forced to smuggle money across the border in suitcases. Every time Hamas funds are stopped anywhere the terror victims will immediately move on them.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Previous articleUSA Army Cautions Rapid Iraq Pullout
Next articleHamas: From Cairo to UNRWA
David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR