Legal Actions

In the wake of the October 7 attack, Shurat HaDin launched its Legal War Room (LWR), harnessing legal talent around the world, to assist Israel at this time of crisis. Within days of its announcement, over 500 lawyers from 17 different countries joined the LWR. The LWR is our base of operations, working with governmental agencies and the IDF, to initiate and coordinate International legal efforts in defense of Israel and Jews worldwide. In the spirit of Shurat HaDin, the LWR moved to the offense, taking legal actions against terrorism and antisemitism. The LWR initiates lawsuits against the Hamas terrorist organization, its international financiers and supporters. It initiates court actions against biased media platforms, develops ideas and identifies targets, plans strategies, organizes teams of volunteer attorneys, provides needed resources, and utilizes legal systems and courtrooms around the world to defeat terrorism and safeguard the lives of Israeli soldiers.

Shurat HaDin petitioned Israel's High Court to force long-overdue transparency over the detention of Hamas terrorists captured after October 7. Thousands of suspected Palestinians are held as “unlawful combatants” without charges, and the government has released almost no information about who they are or the specific roles they played in the massacre. Shurat HaDin demanded disclosure of who is in custody, their role in the atrocities, and full accountability, insisting that every terrorist will be prosecuted. No secret deals. No quiet releases. The families deserve the truth

In June 2025, in a case brought during the days of the Second Intifada terror victims’ families secured a momentous victory when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously restored Americans’ right to sue the Palestinian Authority and the PLO under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The Justices agreed: the PA cannot take U.S. aid while paying terrorists through their “pay-for-slay" program. This Supreme Court victory is not only a win for terror victims but also provides vital national security benefits for Israel. “Americans injured or killed by acts of terror have an adequate forum to vindicate their rights.” – Chief Justice Roberts Justice is back on the table - and this ruling changes everything.

Terror victims filed a major lawsuit on behalf of American victims of the October 7 Hamas massacre, accusing Al-Jazeera of providing material support to terrorists. Al Jazeera is trying to get the case dismissed but attorneys for the plaintiffs are fighting fiercely to prevent that. The suit, filed under the American Anti-Terrorism Act, seeks to hold the Qatari news network accountable for aiding and abetting Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad with communication services to spread their extremist narratives. The plaintiffs accuse the Qatari television network of being embedded within the terrorists who perpetrated the massacres in Israel and provide crucial propaganda and public relations assistance to these U.S. designated terror organizations. The lawsuit documents all the "journalists" on Al-Jazeera's payroll who were members of Hamas and played a role in the attack.

Families of three Israeli hostages held in Gaza have filed a lawsuit in Jerusalem against International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, accusing him of aiding Hamas by failing to pursue its leaders. Represented by attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Shurat HaDin, the families of Avinatan Or, Eitan Mor, and Omri Miran allege that Khan delayed issuing arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, treating them on par with Israeli officials. The lawsuit claims that Khan ignored the plight of the hostages and acted in bad faith, allegedly to deflect from sexual misconduct accusations against him from fellow prosecutors. Darshan-Leitner described the ICC as “a branch of Hamas dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

In a crucial development in our ongoing case against UNRWA, the U.S. Department of Justice officially revoked the agency’s immunity, clearing the way for Shurat HaDin's lawsuit against the organization on behalf of October 7 victims. This was a major breakthrough in exposing how a so-called humanitarian organization became entangled with Hamas and allowed terror networks to operate under its cover. However, at least one court in the U.S. still continues to uphold UNRWA’s immunity. Shurat HaDin is fighting this and demanding that UNRWA be compelled to turn over all the evidence of its long term ties to Hamas in Gaza.

Two years after the October 7th massacre and the start of a war on seven fronts, Shurat HaDin returned to New York City with Rage Against the Hate II, following the success of its landmark 2024 conference. Held on October 27, 2025 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the sold-out summit brought together leading legal experts, influencers, and activists to coordinate Israel’s legal defense amid a global surge in antisemitism. The conference featured a powerful keynote by former Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, alongside urgent discussions on campus antisemitism, lawfare against Israeli soldiers, the spread of online hate, and the legal battle against Hamas and its supporters. Alan Dershowitz, Erin Molan, Eylon Levy, Anne Bayefsky, and Yoseph Haddad were just a few of the highlights. More than a conference, Rage Against the Hate II galvanized a growing movement committed to unity, vigilance, and action.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) continues its campaign to criminalize Israel’s self-defense, issuing arrest warrants for Israeli leaders and equating the IDF with Hamas terrorists. In response, Shurat HaDin supported a landmark U.S. sanctions bill aimed at cutting the ICC’s financial and tech access. Though the Senate delayed the vote, bipartisan momentum remains strong. Shurat HaDin is working with Israeli governmental agencies and the IDF on legal strategies to defend officers and soldiers against false allegations of war crimes.

Ahlam Al-Tamimi, the unrepentant Palestinian terrorist behind the 2001 Sbarro restaurant bombing, remains free in Jordan. Released from Israeli prison in the disastrous 2011 Gilad Shalit deal, she relocated to the Hashemite Kingdom, where she became a radio host and has publicly glorified the attack that murdered 14 people and wounded 130, including American citizens. Representing the victims’ families, Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has been engaged in ongoing efforts, including high-level engagement with the U.S. Department of Justice, to seek Al-Tamimi’s extradition - efforts Jordan has so far rejected. Shurat HaDin continues to apply legal and diplomatic pressure to secure her extradition, particularly as senior U.S. officials, including President Trump, have renewed calls to bring her to trial in the United States.

Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center secured a major legal victory: the reopening of the Holocaust-era database documenting stolen Jewish property. Created under the government initiated HEART Project, the archive holds records of approximately two million looted assets. Led by Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Shurat HaDin petitioned on behalf of Holocaust survivors’ families, prompting the State of Israel to restore public access after years of closure. Following negotiations with the Ministry of Social Equality, the Jewish Agency, and the database’s developers, the State agreed to reopen it under specific conditions. “This decision opens the door to reclaiming stolen property and honoring the victims’ legacy,” said Darshan-Leitner.

Following the discovery of a suspicious explosive device near a Jewish community facility in Cape Town, Shurat HaDin conducted an independent, in-depth investigation to identify those responsible and assess broader security implications. The findings were formally documented and transmitted to senior officials across South Africa’s security and law-enforcement apparatus, including the South African Police Service, Crime Intelligence, and national prosecutorial authorities, as well as to international law-enforcement and intelligence counterparts, Jewish communal security organizations, and relevant diplomatic and governmental stakeholders. We will not allow the anti-Israeli policies of the South African government to intentionally ignore or brush this dangerous attack on Jews under the rug. By ensuring that the investigation reached decision-makers at the highest levels, Shurat HaDin maximized the likelihood of accountability, prevention, and coordinated response.

Shurat HaDin received the prestigious Social Action and National Resilience Award from the mass-circulation daily Israel HaYom. The prize, presented by the newspaper's publisher Dr. Miriam Edelstein, recognized Nitsana and the Law Center's "tireless work defending Israeli hostages, soldiers, and victims of terrorism and fighting BDS, antisemitism and baseless war crimes complaints against the IDF." The ceremony, held in Tel Aviv on National Women's Day, awarded the coveted prize to 50 influential Israeli women for their impactful contributions to Israel and the world’s Jewish community.

Shurat HaDin brought an unprecedented lawsuit against the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on behalf of the families of the Israeli hostages and those captives who have been released. This is the first time the ICRC has been sued for not fulfilling its mandate: we alleged that the ICRC has breached its moral and legal duty to protect the well-being, health and rights of the Israeli hostages being held by the terrorist Hamas organization. The lawsuit follows the legal demand letter we sent, signed by more than 1,200 attorneys shortly after Oct. 7th, demanding that the ICRC speak out and fulfill its duties and act.

Shortly after the October 7 massacre, Shurat HaDin filed a complaint in the International Criminal Court (ICC), blaming Hamas for committing War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. The complaint urged the Prosecutor to issue arrest warrants against the terrorist leaders, stressing the urgency to act in order to protect the 250 men, women and children kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas. The Prosecutor failed to act against Hamas, waiting more than 8 months until requesting the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber to issue arrest warrants both against Hamas and Israeli leaders - creating a twisted moral equivalence between the terrorists and their victims. The Pre-Trial chamber opened the floor for submissions regarding its jurisdiction. At first, Shurat HaDin chose to decline and not to participate. But then, in a highly exceptional decision, the ICC Pre-Trial, on its own initiative, approached Shurat HaDin and invited us to make a submission on behalf of victims! Shurat HaDin decided to answer this call, elaborating in our submission on both lack of jurisdiction to investigate Israelis, and the bias conduct by the prosecutor against Israel and Israeli victims.

In a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, Shurat HaDin demanded the investigation of Amal Clooney, wife of the Hollywood actor George Clooney, who served on the advisory panel of experts to the ICC Prosecutor in support of the Prosecutor's investigation against Israeli officials. The letter demands an investigation into whether Clooney's actions on behalf of the ICC were conducted on US soil, in violation of the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, which forbids any such investigative actions to be taken on US soil without a dedicated government authorization.

The full text of this case is not on file yet.

n a letter to the Israeli Attorney General, the Minister of Defense and head of Israel's Security Agency (ISA), Shurat HaDin demands that UNRWA be designated in Israel as a terror organization. The letter contains detailed information of the integration of UNRWA into Hamas, including the massive use of UNRWA facilities and equipment for terror purposes, the fact that UNRWA has become the employer of thousands of Hamas operatives, the incitement against Israel in UNRWA’s educational system and more, concluding that UNRWA has become a "shell company" for Hamas. Following this letter of demand, legislation was introduced to designate UNRWA as a terror organization and strip it of its immunity as a UN organization.

Within days after the October 7 attack, Hamas and its supporters launched multiple worldwide fundraising campaigns, many in countries which do not designate Hamas as a terror organization, such as Malaysia and South Africa. With the help of counterterror financing experts, identifying covert Hamas organizations and their bank accounts, Shurat HaDin launched tens of letters to Banks, money transfer companies and credit card companies, which were used for these illicit schemes. Many of these financial institutions took steps and assured Shurat HaDin that they will be taking the necessary precautions to comply with money-laundering regulations.

Shurat HaDin has drafted and promoted in the Knesset a bill which seeks to introduce into Israeli legislation similar protections included in the American Service-Members’ Protection Act (ASPA). The ASPA, enacted shortly after the establishment of the ICC, includes important provisions that help protect and support American service members, and those of America's allies, against the ICC. The Israeli bill includes, amongst others, provisions that prohibit investigative actions by the ICC on Israeli soil, cooperation with ICC investigations, financial sanctions against the ICC, offers support for Israeli nationals under investigation of the ICC, and much more.

Representing victims of the October 7 Attack, Shurat HaDin joined the opposition to the petition filed by far-left Israeli organizations, demanding the complete shutting down of "Sde-Teiman" facility, where murderous Hamas detainees are held, due to alleged complaints regarding the confinement conditions and maltreatment of the detainees. Shurat HaDin has appeared before the Supreme Court, arguing that shutting down the facility will mean the release of Hamas criminals back into Gaza, since Israel lacks any alternative facility to imprison the thousands of Hamas detainees. Furthermore, Shurat HaDin argued that the entire petition was based on unsubstantiated UNRWA reports and that the biased UN agency was itself saturated with Hamas members and therefore could not be trusted. The petition is still pending

According to the Constitution of the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), all National Societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent are required to respect the Fundamental Principles of the IFRC, including the principles of "Neutrality" and "Independence." Violation of these principles constitutes a "Breach of Integrity" and may bring suspension of the National Society. Shurat HaDin issued a letter to the Chair of the Compliance and Mediation Committee (CMC) of the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent (IFRC) demanding that the CMC initiate an investigation for “Breach of Integrity” by the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC), due to the systematic use of PRC ambulances by Hamas in Gaza. Shurat HaDin further asked that following this investigation, the CMC will recommend that the Board of the IFRC suspend the PRC from membership in the IRFC.

Leading a group of Harvard Alumni, Shurat HaDin brought a lawsuit against the Ivy League College alleging that the unrestrained antisemitism on the campus, the school’s support for Hamas terrorists, and its persistent pattern of shocking Israel bashing, have led to a grave devaluing of their diplomas. The civil action contends that the Harvard administration has repeatedly ignored attacks on Jewish students and continuous calls by students and faculty members for genocide against the Jewish State, despite numerous complaints. The plaintiffs accuse the College of allowing a toxic and hateful atmosphere on campus to proliferate, which has badly damaged their alma mater’s reputation and prestige. As a result, the plaintiffs claim that the value of their diplomas, in which they had heavily invested, has greatly decreased in the eyes of potential employers and companies, which no longer respect the once illustrious Harvard name, and have said they will no longer hire alumni. The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction against the College and financial compensation.

Shurat HaDin has assisted American lawyers in investigating, documenting and pursuing legal actions in the US federal courts against those perpetrating the anti-Israel protests and riots on college campuses namely, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and its affiliated network of student organizations, as well as their leaders. Our investigation has determined that SJP is in fact a network established by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, supported by the terror organization and in turn directly provides Hamas with material support and resources - all in violation of American law. Our research demonstrates how Hamas has, over the last two decades, covertly extended its terrorist influence on college campuses throughout the United States. It furthermore showed how SJP has become the student arm of the terrorist group whose purpose is to facilitate intimidation tactics, coercion policies, and spread its terrorist agenda among impressionable college students. American law offices are now suing these dangerous extremist groups that act as the American student-wing of Hamas.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is an act which requires any entity which engaged in political activities in the United States to register and make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with their foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities. Representing families of victims of the October 7 massacre, Shurat HaDin issued a letter to the US Attorney General, requesting it launch an immediate investigation against National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) for violating FARA. The victims are arguing that NSJP is acting as an agent of Hamas in the United States, and it engages in political activities on college campuses across the country that are intended to influence US public opinion in support of Hamas, in violation of FARA.

More than 3,000 students and other protesters were arrested during campus protests which spread on campuses in April and May 2024. Some of the protesters were suspended or expelled by their universities. Among these students were foreign nationals, whose presence in the US is based on student and other temporary visas. In a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the US Immigration Agencies, Shurat HaDin demanded immediate action to revoke visas of foreign students and other foreign nationals who violated the terms of their visas by participating in violent campus protests and antisemitic incidents. The letter also raised concerns as to the potential breach of immigration regulations by university staff members: Designated Student Officers (“DSOs”) in every university hold a duty to report such foreign students’ actions and academic status. The letter called upon federal officials to investigate if DSOs have failed their reporting duties and, if so, to act accordingly to withdraw the relevant institutions’ Student and Exchange Visiting Program (SEVP) certification, which allows them to accept foreign students.

In December 2023 South Africa filed a complaint in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel, blaming Israel for committing genocide in Gaza. The circumstances prior to this filing were suspicious. Over the past few years, the leaders of South Africa's leading party – the African National Congress Party (ANC) - have been in serious financial debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. Suddenly, in January 2024, the ANC announced that its finances had stabilized. In a letter sent to US Secretary Blinken, the US attorney General and heads of Senate and Congressional committees, more than 150 lawyers led by Shurat HaDin, called the American authorities to initiate an investigation against the ANC leaders under the anti-corruption Magnitsky Act. The letter alleged that the African leaders "participated in acts of significant corruption involving bribery" by accepting payments from Iran to cover the ANC's huge debt, as a payment for bringing the "Genocide" case against Israel in the ICJ.

Shurat HaDin has been at the forefront of alleging and documenting that the Qatari based news network Al Jazeera knowingly paid Hamas and PIJ operatives to act as journalists and reporters on its behalf. Some of these operatives even participated in the October 7 Attack on Israel, documenting the atrocities as they occurred. Even though their terrorist activities and affiliations were exposed, Al Jazeera continued to employ and compensate these terrorists. These actions add to Al Jazeera's continued extensive incitement and glorification of terrorism against Israel, as they regularly interview terrorist leaders. According to our claims these actions constitute material support of terrorism, thus Al Jazeera is liable for both aiding and abetting acts of international terrorism and for conspiring with terrorist organizations, in furtherance of acts of international terrorism. Shurat HaDin maintains that this influential Qatari government-controlled network serves as an instrumentality of the terrorists groups in Gaza and therefore must be held legally accountable.

One year after the worst terror attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Shurat HaDin understood there was a major problem. Instead of supporting Israel and the Jewish people in the most difficult of times, an unprecedented wave of antisemitism swept across campuses, spilled onto streets throughout the world, and permeated the internet. The pro-Israel groups were doing their best to fight back but were getting tired and discouraged. So Shurat HaDin initiated and hosted the “Rage against the Hate” landmark Conference at the Yale Club in New York City on October 31, 2024. Bringing together over 45 pro-Israel organizations, influencers, and activists, the conference’s aim was to unite those fighting for Israel and the Jewish people, to inspire them to work together, and to develop robust strategies to confront hate and incitement. The conference was a resounding success. Speakers included Douglas Murray, Alan Dershowitz, Michael Rapaport, Benjamin Brafman, Shabbos Kestenbaum, Shai Davidai, Israeli Consul General Ofir Akunis, and Republican strategist Frank Luntz. Former hostage, Mia Schem came and received a standing ovation. The positive atmosphere was palpable, and one could hear a pin drop from early morning until late in the evening. Everyone left reinvigorated, inspired, and equipped with new ideas, and the grit to accomplish them. The attendees agreed to continue the momentum by creating specialized committees, represented by many of the organizations in attendance, to find ways to work as a united front and confront the rise of antisemitism and the continuous delegitimization of Israel.

On April 22, 2023, the Shin Bet arrested Imad al-Adwan, a Jordanian Member of Parliament, while attempting to smuggle 12 military rifles and 194 pistols at a border crossing. Al-Adwan has been smuggling contraband—from gold to assault weapons—for over a year, using his diplomatic passport and Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel as a convenient cover. Shurat HaDin is at the forefront of efforts to have the seized weapons turned over to security personnel in Judea and Samaria. In a letter sent to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we demanded that “the damage caused by the decision to release Jordanian Member of Parliament Imad Al-Adwan, be rectified by you instructing that the smuggled weapons be handed over immediately to support the reinforcing of the security of Israelis along the roads in Judea and Samaria.”

In February 2023, Shurat HaDin filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague demanding that it investigate the Palestinian Authority for the abduction and murder of Tiran Feru. Tiran, a Druze Israeli teenager, was abducted from a hospital in Jenin after suffering a life-threatening injury in a traffic accident near the city. He died as a result of being disconnected from his medical support after armed Palestinian men stormed his hospital room and abducted him. Feru was murdered inside the PA and the gunmen who kidnapped and murdered him belonged to Fatah, the ruling terrorist faction of the PLO. Shurat HaDin represents the Feru family and is demanding that the ICC hold the PA accountable. “It’s unbelievable that when an Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, was killed by a stray [IDF] bullet in Jenin, the whole world reared up and demanded an investigation,” Shurat HaDin’s president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner explained, “but when an Israeli boy is murdered, nobody questions the trustworthiness of the Palestinian Authority.”

Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old California native and exchange student was murdered in the November 13, 2015, ISIS attack on Paris. The attack was facilitated by YouTube, which is owned by Google. The Islamic State terror group posted online videos to recruit new members, raise funds, glorify its violence, and disseminate operational orders on the streaming platform. YouTube’s algorithms highlighted and promoted the gory ISIS videos and earned Google millions in advertising profits. Shurat HaDin took Google to court. Google’s defense was that it was immune from legal action because of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, a law that protects online media companies from responsibility for content posted by others. In October 2022, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear our case. In June 2023, the Supreme Court handed down a decision not to dismiss Gonzalez vs. Google based on Section 230, rather remanding the case back to the Court of Appeals, to allow the plaintiffs to prove their case. Our tireless pursuit of justice for the victims continues.

In 2023 a new, tragically dangerous threat plagued Israel - the terrorist targeting of Israeli drivers. Each week another Jewish victim was killed or injured on the roads. In response, Shurat HaDin created a free antiterrorism survival training course available to Israeli drivers who wanted to learn what to do when ambushed on the roads with terrorist gunfire, explosives, firebombs, or rocks. Security professionals provided the participants with emergency driving strategies, basic first aid, and “live fire” simulation drills. We taught Israeli families the tactics they needed to survive a terror attack. The course received widespread praise. Hundreds were trained, including many communities in Judea and Samaria and all Zaka drivers, and thousands were signed up. When the war broke out, we had to pause the courses, but with the new year, we are starting them up again. Moreover, we plan to add defense strategies against home invasions to the training with the help of a US security firm

Immediately after October 7th, Shurat HaDin understood our work had just increased exponentially. As world leaders in the long fight against Palestinian terrorism and its financial patrons, along with a 20-year track record of confronting the haters who try to delegitimize Israel, Shurat HaDin was uniquely qualified to go on the legal offensive against Israel’s enemies and those who threaten violence against our communities during these dark days. The Law Center immediately launched a Legal War Room, harnessing legal talent around the world, to assist Israel at this time of crisis. Within days of its announcement, over 600 hundred lawyers from 17 different countries joined. International legal efforts were coordinated in defense of Israel and Jews worldwide; to initiate legal actions against terrorism and antisemitism. Working with governmental agencies and the IDF, we initiated lawsuits against the Hamas terrorist organization, its international financiers, and its supporters. We initiated Court actions against biased media platforms, developed ideas and targets, planned strategies, organized teams of volunteer attorneys, provided needed resources, and utilized legal systems and courtrooms around the world to defeat terrorism and safeguard the lives of Israeli soldiers. The Legal War Room is defending Israel against allegations of war crimes and is documenting the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Hamas perpetrates. "The legal arena is of utmost importance," says Nitsana Darshan-Leitner. "You can win on the battlefield and still lose the war because of it...Some of the best legal minds in the world are pro-Israel and it is only natural that since the Jewish state is facing great danger, they will want to contribute. We have extensive experience in waging lawfare against terrorists and their supporters...but need many other lawyers to join the fight. It's a fight for the existence of the State of Israel."

Shurat HaDin was one of the first to voice horror at the lack of world response to the assaults and sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women on October 7 and beyond. We are taking action to promote awareness of Hamas’ barbaric acts of rape and murder during the October 7 massacre and raise alarm for the captive women and children. We were asked to intensify this project by the Israeli government. Shurat HaDin is approaching this shocking issue from the legal perspective. We are defining the human rights violations and war crimes that have been committed and are demanding the indictment of the Hamas terrorists for crimes against humanity. We are sending letters to international organizations dedicated to women’s rights and demanding their involvement. We are working to bring strong women’s rights activists against wartime sexual crimes to support Israeli victims in Israel. Shurat HaDin is drafting a legal brief for the Israeli Attorney General outlining the ability to legally charge and convict those terrorists proven to have been involved in sexual crimes, even though physical evidence could not be obtained, and to demand enhanced sentences. And, of course, we are representing female victims in lawsuits against Iran, North Korea and Qatari entities, as well as against the terrorists themselves.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) holds a special place in international law. They alone have the legal mission and obligation to safeguard the rights and well-being of prisoners and captives during war time. The ICRC’s duty is to ensure the treatment of those being held and to demand that they receive proper medical care. Yet, even months after the Hamas abductions, the ICRC has not met with one of the hostages and continues to blame Israel, outrageously demanding that the Jewish State itself work out how to gain access to the captives. Rather than insisting that they be provided access and be allowed to deliver medicine, as they have with many other kidnapped victims held by other terrorists around the world, they echo Hamas' demand for a ceasefire and point the finger at Israel. As such, we have brought an unprecedented lawsuit against the ICRC on behalf of the families of the Israeli hostages and those captives who had been released, in the Jerusalem District Court. This is the first time this Geneva-based humanitarian agency has been sued for not fulfilling its mandate. We alleged that the ICRC has breached its moral and legal duty to protect the well-being, health and rights of the Israelis being held by the terrorist Hamas organization. The lawsuit follows the legal demand letter we sent, signed by more than 1,200 attorneys shortly after Oct. 7th, demanding that the ICRC speak out, fulfill its duties and act. The Shurat HaDin lawsuit against the ICRC received widespread media attention which increased pressure to act. It was covered by The New York Times, Newsweek, Barron's, and many others.

Over the past 20 years, Shurat HaDin has brought tens of lawsuits against Iran on behalf of victims of terror in Israel and will now do so on behalf of Hamas victims of October 7. In addition, the LWR is investigating legal action against North Korea, whose weapons are being used by Hamas, and against Qatari entities, another major supporter of Hamas. In the last decade, Qatar has been the main financière of Hamas, transferring hundreds of millions into Gaza. It is also perceived as the only state that has the power to compel Hamas to release Israeli hostages. Per Israeli officials' requests, it is on the LWR agenda to prioritize lawsuits against Qatari organizations involved in funding Hamas, such as the Qatari oil shipping company. Legal efforts on behalf of the October 7 victims also include demanding the extradition of Hamas leaders for prosecution in the United States and seeking the designation of Hamas as a terror organization in countries that have citizens who were murdered or kidnapped by Hamas and who have not yet made this designation

The so-called “Pay for Slay” stipend program is a public policy of the Palestinian Authority (PA) which refers to the payments for terrorism as its “Martyrs’ Fund.” This indefensible program is codified in two Palestinian statutes. Outrageously, the PA awards monthly stipends to reward the criminals who are serving or have served sentences in Israeli jails for committing violent acts such as stabbing, shooting, or murdering Israeli civilians. The reward amount increases based on the number of murders and the length of the sentence given by the Israeli courts. The stipends are also paid out to the families of suicide bombers. The families of the October 7 Hamas attackers, who burned Jews alive, raped women and beheaded babies, are already applying for their stipends from the PA’s Martyr’s Fund. Shurat HaDin is working on a worldwide legal campaign to (a) cut off the funding for the program via legal demand letters and (b) seize the Pay for Slay money for the victims via lawsuits against the PA for aiding and abetting terrorism, and the terrorists themselves. Shurat HaDin recently launched the campaign with a legal demand letter calling on the EU, the largest funder of the PA, to stop its aid to the Palestinians until there is independently verifiable proof that the PA stipend program has ceased to reward and encourage violence against Jews. These official Palestinian payments for the Oct. 7 atrocities must be stopped.

Shurat HaDin created a must-watch video that exposes the racism and bias of the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which helps children everywhere except Jewish children in Israel. The horrific Hamas massacre on October 7 and continuing indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah, have resulted in Israeli children murdered and seriously injured; 30 Israeli children kidnapped into Gaza; nearly 100,000 children displaced from their homes; and hundreds of thousands of children seriously traumatized. While UNICEF claims that it works across the globe to “protect the rights of every child, everywhere” and according to its mission statement: “across more than 190 countries and territories, we do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive and fulfill their potential”, it shockingly has no programs to assist Israelis, only Palestinians. Worse, UNICEF staff won’t even accept donations for Israelis. In the eyes of UNICEF, the suffering and threats to Israeli children just don’t matter.

In response to the Palestinian 2015 knife Intifada, Shurat HaDin launched a legal campaign against the social media platforms that aided and abetted the terrorists. Palestinian terror groups called for murders, raised money, and glorified their violence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Innocent Israelis were killed as a result of this online incitement. Social media companies have continuously claimed that Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act absolves them from being considered the publishers of what is featured on their sites since the material is posted by third-party users. This fall, though, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cert in Gonzalez v. Google, our landmark legal action against the California-based social media giants. The case has the potential to finally change the archaic internet laws that have allowed incitement, violence, and hate to be promoted online.

Israel’s enemies have used the International Criminal Court in The Hague as a headline-grabbing weapon to vilify the Jewish state. Shurat HaDin has decided to test the legitimacy and impartiality of this court by filing a complaint charging Hamas perpetrated war crimes for targeting Israel’s population centers with indiscriminate rocket fire. In May 2021, Hamas fired 4,360 rockets and missiles against the towns and cities of southern Israel during eleven-days of terror. Targeting civilians in a conflict—as per the ICC’s own Rome Statutes—is a war crime. Hamas is also guilty of using its population as human shields, and specifically trying to kill Jews—holding hostages and targeting a specific religious group are war crimes, as well. Shurat HaDin demands that Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif and political chief Ismail Haniyeh be brought before the tribunal to answer for these heinous violations of international law.

On the night of June 30, 2016, a Palestinian terrorist infiltrated the settlement of Kiryat Arba and snuck into the home of Hallel Ariel, a fourteen-year-old girl, and promising dancer, and fatally stabbed the teenager as she slept. The terrorist—who was later shot and killed—had forewarned his intentions of becoming a martyr in posts on Facebook. The PA pays terrorists and their families generous stipends after committing acts of terror against Jews, and Shurat HaDin filed a lawsuit against the Palestinian Authority on behalf of Hallel’s parents for rewarding their daughter’s murderer. We also filed a war crimes complaint against PA President Mahmoud Abbas about the “pay for slay” incentives. In a sharply worded letter to the ICC, we stressed that although the Palestinian Authority is not a sovereign state, Abbas is a citizen of Jordan, which is an ICC member state, and subject to the court’s jurisdiction.

The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) dispenses injustice and hatred with an antisemitic and anti-Israeli agenda. It established the Pillay Commission with the sole mission of vilifying Israel. When the Pillay Commission declared that Israel’s “occupation” of Palestinian territory violates international law and demanded that Israeli soldiers be prosecuted in the International Court of Justice for war crimes, Shurat HaDin flew a group of IDF reservists to stage a large protest outside the body’s European headquarters. In 2021, the Biden administration rejoined the Pillay Commission after a four-year absence, arguing that it would be easier to defend Israel from within, and promising to obstruct the anti-Israel activities. But its heinous anti-Israel agenda continues unabated. Shurat HaDin relentlessly lobbies governments from across the world to remove themselves from the UNHRC, and we demand that the U.S. government declare the Pillay Commission a hate group, and immediately resign from its ranks.

An initiative organized by Shurat HaDin is striking back at the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream manufacturers for their anti-Israel bias and sheer hypocrisy. Over 1,000 Israeli university students signed a letter to Anuradha Mittal, the Ben and Jerry’s Chairperson, demanding that the company evacuate its factories and headquarters in Vermont from "illegally occupied" Abenaki Indian lands. The Ben and Jerry’s corporation sits on three New England properties that once belonged to North American indigenous tribes, and the students want to hold the company’s leadership accountable to the same argument compelling Ben and Jerry’s to boycott Israel. In the letter, the students wrote “We know you are calling for Jews to vacate Judea and Samaria, therefore we call upon you to evacuate your factories in Vermont because this is occupied territory. This is not a war against ice cream. It’s about the hypocrisy of the BDS movement.”

On August 9, 2001, 15 people, including 7 members of the same family, were killed in the Hamas suicide bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem. Scores were wounded. Ahlam Tamimi, a 21-year-old Jordanian-born Palestinian led the bomber to the restaurant. She was arrested after the attack, convicted of mass murder, and sentenced to 16 life terms. Tamimi was freed in the lopsided 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange and deported to her native Jordan. Because 2 Americans were killed in the bombing, Tamimi was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List. The Trump administration demanded her extradition, but because Jordan is a key strategic American ally, she remains free. She is now an Arabic media star boasting of her role in killing Israelis and Jews. Shurat HaDin will not relent in its pressure on the U.S. government demanding that Tamimi be extradited and prosecuted for her heinous crimes.

Shurat HaDin, together with Texas attorney, Jay M. Goldstein, has filed an Amicus Brief in the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Texas, in the case of A&R Engineering and Testing, Inc. v. Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas. A&R Engineering, a Palestinian-owned firm in Houston, sued to repeal the Texas law prohibiting the awarding of state contracts to companies that participated in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel, claiming it violated its First Amendment right of free speech to participate in economic boycotts as a form of protest. Initially, the district court found for A&R Engineering. The Texas Attorney General appealed. Shurat HaDin’s Amicus Brief exposed BDS as a discriminatory movement designed to delegitimize and eradicate Israel. The targeting of Jews and Israelis—especially with taxpayer-funded state contracts--solely because of their religion or national origin cannot be protected under First Amendment jurisprudence.

Shurat HaDin founder and president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner was honored by the Jerusalem Post and named one of the 50 most influential Jews of 2022. Since it was founded in 2002, Shurat HaDin has sued terror groups, their state sponsors, and the banks that facilitate their blood money, in courtrooms around the world. The Israeli-based human rights NGO has won mega-judgments against Iran, Syria, North Korea, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, on behalf of the victims of terror. “We are fighting an enemy that does not refrain from using any weapon to undermine the right of the Jewish people to reside on its land and live in peace in an independent homeland,” Darshan-Leitner explained. “Therefore, we also have to think out of the box,” she added. “When you go into a [legal] war against a movement, you cannot go with your hands tied behind your back. You need to be creative.”

In July, ice cream manufacturers Ben and Jerry’s made a very public declaration that their many flavors of ice cream would no longer be sold in what they referred to as “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” an apparent referral to the West Bank and East Jerusalem; the two Jewish-Americans from Long Island, New York, said the decision would take effect at the end of 2022 when its contract with the current Israeli manufacturer and distributor expires. In 2011, the Israeli Knesset passed a law allowing civil lawsuits that demand compensation from those who call for boycotts against companies in Israel and West Bank settlements, and immediately following the Ben and Jerry’s announcement, Shurat HaDin led the legal battle against this latest BDS caper. In 2019, Shurat HaDin forced Airbnb to reverse its pro-BDS policy in the wake of a court settlement between the vacation rental company and a dozen American Jewish plaintiffs who had sued the company and has taken an active lead in the fight to make Ben and Jerry’s pay a dear price for becoming yet another woke pawn in the fight against the Jewish state. As a countermove, Shurat HaDin is registering the name “Judea and Samaria’s Ben & Jerry’s” with the Judea and Samaria’s Registry of Corporations. We notified Unilever, Ben and Jerry’s parent company, about our future steps. Unilever fought back, claiming that it had never relinquished its trademark and had no intention of doing so. We hope to have the opportunity to square off against Ben and Jerry’s in a courtroom. We intend to seize their trademarks and utilize their name and manufacture our own ice cream in every Israeli region they have withdrawn from. This battle is far from over.

The full text of this case is not on file yet.

In a daring move that will test the International Criminal Court’s impartiality and focus on a true pursuit of justice—and not just an anti-Israel agenda—Shurat HaDin has called out ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda for a decision on Northern Cyprus and Turkish war crimes. The ICC has been quick-on-the-trigger to accept any accusations leveled against the State of Israel, and Bensouda declared the Israeli settlements a war crime in 2015. So, the question begs to be asked: What about Northern Cyprus? The standard used by the ICC against Israel must apply to all nations, even Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The demand that the ICC investigate Turkey came in 2014—a year before the court’s decision on Israel—but it has remained an issue the prosecutor does not want to touch. “For [a period of] seven years Bensouda has brazenly ignored our communications involving Turkey’s occupation of Northern Cyprus despite all our repeated demands and warnings,” Shurat HaDin founder and president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner stated. “Finally, when we complained to the ICC’s Independent Oversight Commission, Bensouda was forced to act [and do something]. We want to ensure that the ICC would not be able to deal with Palestinian complaints against Israel without first determining how Turkey is occupying Northern Cyprus. Let’s see the ICC [really] go after Erdoğan.” While United Nations rulings have called upon Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a settlement over territory, Turkey has absolutely no legal claim or basis for being in Northern Cyprus. They have initiated a program of racial displacement and stolen half the island nation.

Marwan Barghouti, the former commander of the Fatah Tanzim currently serving five concurrent life sentences in an Israeli prison for the murders he ordered during the second intifada, is one of the highest-profile terror chieftains in Israeli custody. The attacks that Barghouti masterminded killed dozens, wounded scores more, and resulted in the untold suffering of countless innocent Israelis. But Barghouti is a celebrity in prison, and he’s used his status to receive a myriad of perks that a man with his lengthy list of victims must not receive. Most troublesome is the fact that while a maximum-security terror inmate, Barghouti has received special visitors and has been engaged in Palestinian political aspirations, even having his wife submit his name for the list of candidates running for the office of Palestinian Authority president. Shurat HaDin demands that this travesty of common sense and justice end immediately. In a letter written in the name of the parents of Ronen Landau, a seventeen-year-old teenager who was murdered by Barghouti’s men in a terror attack in Jerusalem’s Giva’at Ze’ev neighborhood. “We demand an immediate end to the visits and benefits Marwan Barghouti receives at the expense of the blood of the Jewish terror victims,” Michal and Shmuel, Ronen’s bereaved parents stated. Shurat HaDin founder and president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner concurred “My clients insist the Israel Prison Service treat Barghouti the same as any other security prisoner serving a sentence for the serious crimes he committed,” Darshan-Leitner reaffirmed. Barghouti’s political aspirations were foiled when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas canceled the long-awaited and many-times-canceled legislative elections, actions that helped to ignite the May war with Hamas.

Israel’s enemies have used the International Criminal Court in The Hague as a headline-grabbing weapon to vilify and discriminate against the Jewish state. Terrorist groups, rogue nations, and the BDS movement have tried to have Israelis tried for war crimes in the ICC, and they made determined efforts to pervert justice in courts that are designed to promote truth, due process, and impartiality. Shurat HaDin has decided to test the legitimacy of this court by filing a complaint that Hamas be charged with international war crimes for its assault on the population centers of southern and central Israel during the May 2021 war that the Palestinian Islamic terrorist group instigated. Hamas launched 4,360 rockets and missiles during the eleven-day conflict in May 2021. The missile launches were seen by the world on news broadcasts, imagery, and one social media; the skyline over Gaza looked like a fireworks display with all the ordnance being fired from the strip into Israel’s towns and cities. The international laws that govern warfare strictly prohibit the specific targeting of civilians—the indiscriminate and unprovoked bombardment of civilians is not only immoral but highly illegal under the Rome Statutes of the ICC. The deliberate actions perpetrated by Hamas constitute the most severe form of war crimes, the Shurat HaDin filing stressed. Hamas used its population as human shields, which is also prohibited. The sole purpose of the Hamas war was to kill and injure Jews. Targeting a specific religious group is also a war crime. The complaint demanded that Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif and political chief Ismail Haniyeh be brought before the tribunal to answer for these violations of international law. Shurat HaDin founder and president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner summarized the brazen Chutzpah of the ICC and Hamas best, when she said, “The entire purpose of the existence of the Court in the Hague is to deter and prosecute violent crimes like these being perpetrated by Hamas against Israelis. It is a bitter irony that while the Palestinians, including Hamas, are insisting upon a criminal investigation of Israel in the ICC, they are intentionally carrying out violent war crimes against the Jewish state.”

Shurat HaDin has filed a formal complaint against the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, and members of her staff. The complaint sent to the Independent Oversight Mechanism of the ICC accuses Bensouda of deliberate disregard and bias in the handling of the numerous petitions and communications filed by the Law Center over the past six years. Many of Shurat HaDin's communications focused upon allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity which have been committed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas leadership. These complaints were brought before the Prosecutor's office and presented overwhelming evidence of crimes such as torture in Palestinian prisons, arbitrary executions, the 'pay to slay' schemeadministered by PA officials, the illegal use of children in an armed conflict, the use of human shields, and more. Even as Bensouda was deliberating ignoring and purposefully avoiding the charges Shurat HaDin has raised, she has steadily continued her office's investigation of Israel and the IDF. The Office of the Prosecutor has not even materially replied to these complaints. Furthermore, while supposedly reviewing a complaint filed by Shurat HaDin against PA President Mahmoud Abu Abbas, for his criminal responsibility for crimes committed by his subordinates, Bensouda had conducted a meeting with him regarding her office's examination of the Palestinian contentions against Israe

Shurat HaDin President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner was awarded the prestigious Menachem Begin Foundation Prize for 2021 in a ceremony held at the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. The award to Darshan-Leitner recognized her and the Law Center for a career of “providing a voice to the victims of Palestinian terror, for safeguarding the global Jewish community, seeking justice against Israel’s enemies, combatting the boycotters and endeavoring to protect IDF soldiers in forums worldwide.” It was noted that Darshan-Leitner launched her organization, along with other Israeli lawyers, during the dark days of the Second Intifada, when the government had no real response to the daily Palestinian suicide bombings that were devastating Israel. Their goal was to set an example for the country, that when under murderous attack, Jews needed to fight back and go on the offense against their pursuers. Since then, Shurat HaDin has led the legal activist battle on behalf of Israel. According to Begin Foundation Director Herzl Mackov: “For their decisive activity in the legal war against terrorist organizations and attack on their financing methods in a world-wide campaign, Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Shurat HaDin are awarded the Menachem Begin Prize for the year of 2021.” In her acceptance speech, Darshan-Leitner stated: “The former prime minister, Menachem Begin, taught us that Jews must stand tough even when faced with the most powerful and unrelenting of enemies. That we need to respond to every rights violation, every threat to our survival and every challenge to our dignity . . . Over the past two decades, Shurat HaDin has tried to give a voice to the victims of terrorism, to combat the blood libels waged against the IDF, and to go on the offense against the extremist BDS movement. To be recognized for our work is always important and motivating, to be recognized by an organization like the Begin Foundation is especially rewarding and meaningful to us.”

In August 2020, Shurat HaDin filed a defamation lawsuit against the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) on behalf of Rami Levy, an Israeli telecom and supermarket magnate. The UNHRC, claimed that Rami Levy’s establishments in the West Bank violated international law by operating in Judea and Samaria. The UNHRC blacklists 112 companies—virtually all of them in Israel—for their commercial activities inside the West Bank. The lawsuit, filed in a Jerusalem Magistrate Court, has become a landmark case because the United Nations is usually immune from legal action. However, as a result of the specifically racist antisemitic and anti-Israel nature of the UNHRC blacklist and its unmistakable targeting of Israeli and Jewish businesses, the United Nations is in clear violation of its founding charter by practicing overt racism based on nationality and religion. The UNHRC list is deemed as nothing more as a politicized extension of the antisemitic and anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanction) movement that routinely employs blood libel in its efforts to ostracize and dehumanize Israeli and Jewish interests. All the companies on the United Nations list, even those outside of Israel, are Jewish-owned. The objective of the UN blacklist is to initiate an international boycott of Rami Levy’s supermarket chains and his communications company. Levy and Shurat HaDin are suing the UNHRC because the mere insinuation that he is violating international law or that he is practicing any form of racism or discrimination is libelous and contrary to reality. According to the PA’s own Central Bureau of Statistics, Palestinians employed by Rami Levy’s companies earn three times what the average Palestinian worker takes home in salary. Additionally, Rami Levy was outraged by the accusation that his company was doing anything that infringed on the rights of anyone. “All of the workers in our market chains are employed regardless of differences in religion, race, or nationality, and [they] are equally entitled,” Levy commented.

The global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has altered life as we knew it, but it has not impeded Shurat HaDin’s fight for justice. And at a time when much of the world is told to shelter in place, forcing hundreds of millions across the globe to rely on social media for news and entertainment, Shurat HaDin’s fight against terrorist incitement on social media proceeds unabated. In the US Supreme Court briefings on the petition brought by the family of Taylor Force against Facebook are continuing. Most recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard oral arguments in our lawsuit on behalf of victims of the ISIS terrorist attack in Paris on November 13, 3015. The attack involved active shooters and suicide bombers and was the bloodiest in European history. The multipronged assault resulted in the murder of 130 innocent civilians, including U.S. citizen Nohemi Gonzalez, an energetic college student from a Los Angeles suburb who was in France as an exchange student. The civil action was brought against Google, which owns the YouTube platform, alleging that the social media giant provided video streaming services to the ISIS terrorist organization in violation of America’s Anti-Terrorism Act. Google has defended itself by arguing that the Communication Decency Act’s §230 (CDA §230) provides blanket immunity to internet platforms for the content posted on their sites. They contend that anyone, including designated terrorist groups, can post an extremist video and the company is not responsible for providing this material support nor liable for the message. Shurat HaDin’s position contends that CDA §230 is being misapplied by the lower courts and Congress never intended to provide such a broad interpretation that gives the social media companies complete immunity from liability over what is posted by terrorist groups on their platforms. The use of YouTube, as well as other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, by nefarious actors has increased in recent years. Most notably, these platforms have become pillars of efforts by right-wing hate groups to spew hatred and incite individuals and groups to perpetrate acts of violence. This clear and present danger—amplified by Shurat HaDin’s efforts—has sparked the concern and interest of William Barr, the U.S. Attorney General. Shurat HaDin supports Attorney General Barr’s assessment and the right to deny the social media monopolies with the immunity from civil liability when their platforms promote child exploitation terrorism, hate, anti-Semitism, racism, and human trafficking, and enthusiastically awaits further development as the full weight of the U.S. Justice Department becomes a combatant in this all-important fight.

To reign in key financial institutions that work alongside Palestinian banks that provide facilitate the cash requirements of terror organizations, Shurat HaDin placed Citibank on notice that it needed to cease in its dealings with the Bank of Palestine. The letter sent to Citibank headquarters came as a result of efforts by Shurat HaDin to stop the “Pay for Slay” phenomenon, a system of financial rewards offered by the terrorist factions to those who kill Jews and Israelis. The perpetrators of cold-blooded killings rewarded for their crimes by receiving hefty salaries while they are incarcerated; in cases where terrorists have been killed by Israeli security forces, the terrorist’s family receives a lucrative stipend in honor of the crimes their loved ones have committed. “The PA incentivizes killing Jews and Israelis by regularly providing such financial rewards to all imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, including those from Hamas, which has been a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (‘FTO’) in the United States since 1997,” Shurat HaDin President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner wrote to Citibank’s CEO. Citibank serves as a correspondent bank for the Bank of Palestine, enabling the Ramallah-based financial institution to connect to the international banking system. The “Pay for Slay” funds pass through Citibank accounts, exposing the bank to both civil and criminal liability under the US Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). Darshan-Leitner warned Citibank they cannot plead ignorance since “A cursory investigation would have revealed the PA and PLO’s ‘pay to slay’ program and the PA’s use of the banking system,” and that, “sanctions compliance protocols certainly placed Citibank on clear notice Hamas is a designated FTO under the ATA and sanctioned by the United States.”

RECENTLY, IN THE WAKE of Palestinian terrorist actions from Gaza, Shurat HaDin confronted UNICEF on the issue of Hamas balloon bomb attacks targeting Israeli children. In a letter sent on February 5, 2020, we demanded that UNICEF issue a public condemnation of these attacks, as “in the past months, hundreds of balloon bombs, explosive and incendiary devices attached to brightly colored helium balloons, have been released by Hamas into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Some of the balloons have children’s toys attached as well, with the clear intention of targeting Israeli children”. In its rather disgraceful response on March 2nd, not only did UNICEF refuse to issue the required condemnation, but it has once again equated the effects of these illegal and deliberate attacks against Israeli children with the “effects of the armed conflict” on Palestinians! The letter coldly claimed that the international organization, mandated to safeguard all children, “shared our concerns”. UNICEF’s boilerplate response drafted by its local representative Genevieve Boutin did not promise that it would act in any way. This unacceptable response has been met with our reply letter from March 24, 2020, where we once again demanded UNICEF to act, and attacked the unjust and biased comparison between the deliberate and illegal balloon attacks in which “death lures in the most appealing and tightly associated objects with the innocence of childhood” and the children casualties on the Palestinian side, which are the direct result of the Palestinian terrorist groups’ deliberate use of these children as human shields and their encouragement to participate in armed clashes, writing that “your effort to group the deliberate violence perpetrated by Hamas and the actions of the Israeli side is completely baseless and unacceptable to us”. We will continue our efforts to bring this important organization to live up to its own mandate. For an article on YNET.

FOR YEARS SHURAT HADIN has been active in the International Criminal Court (ICC) employing strategic proceedings in anticipation of the day when the ICC would target Israel and the IDF on war crime allegations. This past December 2019, unfortunately, that day arrived with the Chief Prosecutor announcing she was launching an investigation. Shurat HaDin along with several other NGOs, the Israeli government and a number of sovereign nations, have filed briefs with the ICC, insisting that the Palestinians are not a state and that the Court does not have the jurisdiction to investigate nor prosecute the Jewish State. Lining up against Israel on the Palestinian side were a host of antidemocratic regimes, the Arab League and the so-called “human rights organizations.” At stake is whether the Palestinian Authority can charge Israel with war crimes over the IDF’s operations against the terror groups in Gaza and the legitimate right of Jews to settle in the West Bank. In an earlier ruling, the ICC declared that “Palestine” is a state and that there was sufficient evidence that Israeli officials and IDF officers have committed crimes against humanity. Israel has repeatedly made it clear that it will not accept ICC jurisdiction since it is not a signatory of the Rome Statute. Regardless, several member nations—including the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Australia, Hungary, Brazil, along with others, filed briefs supporting Israel. The Czech Republic’s argument was the most voracious, quoting a 2004 International Court of Justice decision to prove that there is no state of Palestine. The Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which represent dozens of countries, as well as former diplomats from the United Nations support the Palestinian position. Under international law an entity can only be defined as a sovereign state if it has a permanent population, a defined territory, government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. Clearly, the Palestinians satisfy none of these criteria.