Hundreds of Palestinians who were tortured by the Palestinian Authority for collaborating with Israel could soon find it far easier to file lawsuits against it and seek compensation. In an unprecedented ruling, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that such lawsuits will henceforth require a far less expensive court fee, similar to the fee for lawsuits seeking compensation for acts of terror.
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Judge Miriam Ilany's decision was issued within the framework of a class-action lawsuit filed by 60 Palestinian collaborators, represented by attorney Barak Kedem, who claim to have been beaten and abused in PA prison.
The attorneys representing the PA in the case, meanwhile, demanded that each plaintiff pay a court fee equaling 2.5% of the sought-after compensation sum, as per the requirement for any "regular" damage claim seeking compensation. In the case at hand, this equates to NIS 250,000 ($75,740), half of which must be paid immediately upon the filing of the lawsuit.
Kedem, the lawyer representing the Palestinian plaintiffs, argued that the court must apply the legal clause whereby in punitive claims for acts of terror or violence, the plaintiff only has to pay a court fee of NIS 1,153 ($350).
"The law can be interpreted as also applying to cases claiming torture and abuse, for the purpose of intimidating the Palestinian population not to collaborate with the state of Israel," Ilany said in her ruling.
Kedem added: "The prosecution and the court adopted our position that equates the Palestinian collaborator community to Israeli victims of terror. This is a significant contribution to building a unified front in the war on terror."
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