Jewish settlers sue Palestinians for $114m

A Jewish settler and her family, backed by an extremist Israeli law centre, are suing Palestinian bodies for compensation worth 400 million shekels ($114m), Quds Press reported on Tuesday. Tamar Fogel, who lives in the illegal settlement of Itamar in the occupied West Bank, submitted a joint claim along with her brothers and 19 members of her family to the Jerusalem district court on Monday.

The extremist Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Centre filed the claim on behalf of the Fogel family. According to Ynet News website, the PLO, the Palestinian Authority and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are listed as respondents in the case.

The claim is that two Palestinians, Hakim Awwad, 18, and Amjad Awwad, 19, who were accused of killing members of the Fogel family in the settlement in 2011, receive salaries from the Palestinian Authority while they are in prison in Israel. The PA is known to pay stipends to support prisoners’ families while breadwinners are behind bars.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the then Prime Minister Salam Fayyad both condemned the killing in separate statements released at the time. The Israeli government, meanwhile, recently approved a law to deduct the payments made to Palestinian prisoners (and those who have been freed) from the taxes collected by Israeli customs authorities on behalf of the PA.

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