US jury finds Palestinian groups liable for terror attacks

Attorney Kent Yalowitz, representing those affected by attacks in Israel in the early 2000s, comments about the conclusion of he case outside a federal courthouse in New York Monday, Feb. 23, 2015. The court found the Palestinian authorities liable in the attacks, with jurors awarding the victims $218.5 million in damages at a civil trial. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) Attorney Kent Yalowitz, representing those affected by attacks in Israel in the early 2000s, comments about the conclusion of he case outside a federal courthouse in New York Monday, Feb. 23, 2015. The court found the Palestinian authorities liable in the attacks, with jurors awarding the victims $218.5 million in damages at a civil trial. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

By Associated Press February 23, 2015 5 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority backed a series of terrorist attacks in the early 2000s in Israel that killed or wounded several Americans, a U.S. jury found Monday in awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in damages at a high-stakes civil trial.

In finding the Palestinian entities liable in the attacks, jurors awarded the victims $218.5 million in damages for the bloodshed in attacks that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more – damages their lawyers said would automatically be tripled under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act.

The case in Manhattan and another in Brooklyn have been viewed as the most notable attempts by American victims of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to use U.S. courts to seek damages that could reach into the billions of dollars.

The Palestinian Authority, which had argued that the attackers acted on their own, said it would appeal.

“The charges that were made against us are baseless,” Deputy Minister of Information Dr. Mahmoud Khalifa said in a statement.