Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported on Thursday at night that a group of Lebanese nationals filed a civil law suit against former Israel Army chief of staff Lieutenant General (res.) Moshe Ya’alon for war crimes and other human rights violations, and crimes against humanity.
The suit was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), it is related to hundreds of civilian death and injuries which took place when the army, under orders of Ya’alon, shelled in 1996 the village of Kafr Kanna, in south Lebanon; the army shelled a United Nations Compound there.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
Israeli online daily Haaretz reported that the CCR attorney, Jamil Dakwar, informed its reporter that the amount of compensation would be determined at the trial.
Ya’alon, who is currently in Washington D.C as a research fellow the Washington Institute, is slated to give lecture on Thursday at night “lessons he learned during war”, the lecture is part of a conference on “war against terrorism”.
Also, the CCR and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) filed a class action, last week, against the former Shin Bet domestic security service head, Avi Dichter.
The lawsuit was submitted on behalf of the family members of 14 Palestinians who were killed when the Israeli army dropped a one-ton bomb on a Gaza neighborhood in July 2002.
The bomb was dropped by the army during an operation to assassinate Salah Shihada, one of Hamas leaders; the compensation sought in that case is estimated in the millions of dollars.
Haaretz added that unlike previous damages law suits against senior Israeli army officials, the lawsuits submitted against Ya’alon and Dichter will be processed by the U.S. court system because the two are in the United States.
Salah Shihada was assassinated on July, 23, 2002, 14 residents, including women and children, were killed in the attack.
Palestinian sue former Shin Bet Chief Avi Dichter in American Court
Saed Bannoura-IMEMC & Agencies – Friday, 09 December 2005, 11:02
Israeli online daily Haaretz reported on Friday that several Palestinian residents filed a civil suit against the former Israeli Shin Bet security service Chief, Avi Dichter in the US Federal Court.
The residents are relatives of 14 civilians, including children, who were killed when the Israeli army assassinated senior Hamas fighter Salah Shihada in July 2002.
Haaretz said that the suit was filed in the US district Court, in the Southern District of New York.
Several Palestinians have previously filed suits against Israeli security officials in US courts, but unlike other cases Avi Dichter is currently in the US, therefore the plaintiffs have been able to serve him with the papers, thereby enabling the court to hear the case.
According to the suit filed against Dichter, he shares responsibility for the deaths of the civilians because of his role in the decision to drop a one-ton bomb in a civilian building where Shihada was staying, and because he supplied the intelligence on which that decision was based.
The Israeli army claimed that it decided to bomb the residential building after receiving intelligent information that Shihada was alone there.
