That is the argument made by a Jordanian bank seeking to have a lawsuit against it dismissed. The suit claim that the bank, which has a New York office and therefore is operating freely in the United States, facilitates the funding of terrorism.

The Jordan-based Arab Bank yesterday asked a federal judge in Brooklyn to dismiss a lawsuit brought by thousands of Israelis who claim the bank fueled terrorism by providing payments to the relatives of suicide bombers.

Lawyers for the bank said that the 4,000 foreign citizens who are plaintiffs should not be allowed to have their case heard in the American court system. They argued that terrorism against Israel does not violate any "international norm." Lawyers for the bank said that some 80 countries, most Islamic or African, do not consider Palestinian Arab suicide bombers to be terrorists.

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter — that holding is binding on this court," said an attorney for the bank, Kevin Walsh of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae.

The plaintiffs who are suing Arab Bank in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn are the victims of terrorist attacks during the second intifada and the relatives of victims. While the overwhelming majority are citizens of Israel, some plaintiffs are from Afghanistan, Moldova, and several other countries.

They claim that Arab Bank — which has an office in New York — used offices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to distribute payments to people who could prove they were relatives of recent suicide bombers.

The plaintiffs are suing under a 217 year-old-law, the Alien Tort Statute, which has been used by foreign citizens to bring lawsuits in America's federal courts stemming from human rights violations that occurred anywhere in the world.

Got that, folks -- international law supports Jew-killing! Terrorism directed at destroying Israel is not terrorism -- it is freedom-fighting.

Time for the State Department to place this bank on the list of prohibitted terrorist organizations.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Conservative Cat, Adam's Blog, Third World County, Planck's Constant, Blue Star Chronicles

Posted by: Greg at 12:16 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 360 words, total size 3 kb.