The Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin) will sue Palestinian TV for its blatant incitement to violence and murder against Jews and Israelis, announced the firm’s founder, attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, on Wednesday.
Shurat HaDin, a non-governmental organization (NGO), is committed to “fighting terrorism and safeguarding Jewish rights worldwide” through legal channels, winning justice for terror victims and challenging those who seek to delegitimize Israel through unlawful boycotts and slander.
Its guiding principle, justice, known as “tzedek” in the Hebrew Bible, is one of the basic tenets of living a moral Jewish life. God commands the appointing of judges and the rightful rule of law numerous times, instructing His subjects in the book of Deuteronomy: “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” Shurat HaDin follows the injunctive to a T, pursuing justice for Jews, terror victims, and Israel in courts throughout the world.
Accompanying the announcement was a short, jarring video demonstrating the extent to which anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli hatred is entrenched in Palestinian media by presenting a parallel example of what this kind of incitement would look like on American TV.
“Imagine if you turned on your TV and saw everybody talking like this,” the video begins, cutting to a clip of a CNN anchor who announces, “Tonight on Sixty Minutes: Kill Muslims.”
The video goes on to show celebrities like Alex Trebec and Oprah Winfrey talking about killing Muslims on their shows, and even includes clips from popular TV shows like “Game of Thrones” and “Family Guy” with characters declaring their intentions to kill Muslims.
“Of course, American TV would never really call for the murder of Muslims,” the narrator continues. “But Palestinian TV incites for the murder of innocent Jews every single day.”
Clips of Palestinian news shows, event coverage, and kids’ programs then appear, all openly encouraging violence and attacks against Jews.
Things American TV Would Never Say About Muslims
Shurat HaDin, which has successfully won lawsuits against terrorists, the Palestinian Authority, and, most recently, Iran, has decided to take the heads of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation to court for war crimes.
“The extremist broadcasts on Palestinian Television have broken records in recent months. In the present wave of terror, many terrorists have been spurred into action after seeing provocative programs that call explicitly to kill Israelis,” wrote Shurat HaDin in its Wednesday statement.
Indeed, in one recent case, a teenaged terrorist stabbed a mother of six to death in the doorway of her home after watching videos urging Palestinian youths to attack Jews.
For those who doubt that the lawsuit is viable, Shurat HaDin pointed out that there is a precedent for cases like this. “The Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal ruled that incitement to murder and genocide is a war crime,” it stated.
“Our goal is to recruit thousands of individuals from around the world to join in a complaint against the heads of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation. We are preparing to submit the complaint in the International Criminal Court in the Hague. ”
To that end, the organization is asking that those interested in joining the complaint sign up on their website as plaintiffs.
This is not the first time Shurat HaDin has fought against Palestinian incitement. The non-profit organization has also sued Facebook for allowing violent messages and images disseminated by Palestinians to remain on the site.
Shurat HaDin’s most recent victory, in a California court, awarded $9 million from Iranian funds to victims of a 1997 terror attack and their families. The lawsuit was based on the argument that Iran is a known sponsor of Hamas, the terrorist organization which orchestrated the fatal attack.
