Government Argues Against the Seizure Of PLO Property in N.Y.

By JACOB GERSHMAN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
September 13, 2005

Siding against the family of a young married couple murdered by Hamas, the Bush administration yesterday urged a federal court in New York not to evict the Palestinian Liberation Organization's observer mission to the United Nations from its Upper East Side headquarters.

The Justice Department, in a "statement of interest" submitted to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, said it strongly objects to enforcement of a $116 million terrorism judgment against the Palestinian Authority that would involve the seizure of the PLO's East 65th Street property.

In a case that pits judicial process against the foreign policy concerns of the executive branch, federal attorneys argued that evicting the Palestinian Arabs from their longtime location would damage the Middle East peace process and "cause serious embarrassment" to America in its relationship with the United Nations.

"In consideration of the strong foreign policy interests at stake here, the United States asks that the Court dismiss this matter on any available legal ground," stated the 30-page document, which was dated September 12 and signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Danna Drori.

A federal court in Rhode Island last year ordered the Palestinian Authority and the PLO to pay more than $116 million in damages related to the murder of an American citizen, Yaron Ungar, and his pregnant wife.

Hamas terrorists in 1996 shot to death the couple while they were driving home from a wedding. The family sued the Palestinian Authority and the PLO under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which makes it a federal crime for terrorists to kill Americans overseas. Lawyers for the Ungar estate alleged that the Palestinian Authority provided Hamas with a safe haven and base of operations, and the court agreed.

The Palestinians have refused to pay any of the judgment. The lawyer representing the Palestinians, Ramsey Clark, who served as attorney general under President Johnson, has stated that American courts do not have authority over the PLO.

Lawyers representing the Ungar estate, attempting to zero in on a method to force the Palestinians to pay damages, have asked a federal court in New York to expel the Palestinians from the East 65th Street property and appoint a receiver who would sell the building at an auction, with proceeds to be paid to the Ungar family and applied to the judgment. A Manhattan attorney who represents the Ungar estate, Robert Tolchin, estimated that the property is worth about $10 million. The property is owned by the PLO and held in the name of a former Palestinian permanent observer to the U.N., Nasser Al-Kidwa, who stepped down in 2004.

In a telephone interview with The New York Sun, Mr. Tolchin said he disagreed with the notion that American foreign policy interests should necessarily dictate the enforcement of court judgments.

"Foreign policy interests are lovely," he said. "But what gives the government the right to get involved?"

Attorneys for the Justice Department argue that both the Constitution and federal statutes give the executive branch authority over decisions regarding foreign missions.

The Justice Department document noted that the Reagan administration in 1986 rejected a call from Rep. Jack Kemp to close the mission following a terrorist attack in Jerusalem.

Mr. Clark, in a brief filed in August, wrote that the forced eviction of a mission to the United Nations would violate both American and international law.

Yasser Arafat established the Palestinian mission inside the Upper East Side townhouse in 1974 after he won approval from the U.N. to set up an observer mission. At the time, the American government opposed the invitation to the Palestinians but yielded to the will of the international body.

A federal judge today will hear arguments from plaintiffs and the defendants, as well as from representatives of the Justice Department and the U.N. The judge, Colleen McMahon, is unlikely to make an immediate decision on the status of the Palestinian mission, Mr. Tolchin said.

An associate professor at Stanford Law School, Allen Weiner, said it was not unprecedented for the executive branch to intervene in such cases.

"The U.S. has obligations to the U.N. under the Headquarters Agreement to protect various sorts of headquarters, including of observer missions, and it has to make sure that cases in which the U.S. is not a party don't result in court decisions that contradict those obligations," he said.

http://www.nysun.com/article/19914?access=107837