Lawyers for hundreds of American victims of terror in Israel and Palestinian territories told a packed courtroom Thursday that a major Middle Eastern bank knowingly funneled millions of dollars to suicide bombers and militants tied to Hamas.
In a landmark Brooklyn federal court case, roughly 300 victims of Middle East violence between 2001 to 2004 are suing Arab Bank for violating the Anti-Terrorism Act.
“Money is the oxygen that fuels this kind of terrorism,” Mark Werbner, one of the lawyers for the families, said during opening statements Thursday.
“This bank on multiple occasions funneled millions of dollars to terrorists who were designated by the American government as terrorists,” said another attorney for the plaintiffs, Tab Turner.
He related the grisly details of a Jerusalem bus bombing to drive home the gravity of the case and the need to make Arab Bank pay a price.
The plaintiffs claim that Jordan-based bank helped a Saudi organization distribute funds to the families of suicide bombers and other members of the group.
They also point to an Arab Bank account once held by Osama Hamdan, a Hamas spokesman, that received wire transfers earmarked for the organization.
Arab Bank attorney Shand Stephens countered in his opening that his client never conducted transactions with individuals or entities that were on official terrorism lists and that they properly vetted all accounts.
Stephens said Hamdan’s account was closed after he was officially designated a terrorist — and that the earmarked Hamas funds totaled a measly $730.
He said the Saudi organization that allocated payments to Hamas members and their families has never been deemed a terrorist organization and that it gave money to a wide spectrum of Palestinians.
Stephens argued that Arab Bank had no idea who the Saudi charity gave its money to — and that they weren’t liable for damages.
The group of victims includes members of a Long Island family who were injured in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 2002.
This is the first terrorism-financing case against a bank to go to trial in the US.