A federal judge has ruled that victims of 24 terrorist attacks in Israel and their families can proceed to trial with their claims that a bank "knowingly" offered financial services to Hamas leadership, entities controlled by the organization and other individuals that resulted in the attacks from 2001 to 2004. Eastern District Judge Nina Gershon (See Profile) made her ruling in Linde v. Arab Bank, 04-cv-02799, from the bench on April 24 following about two hours of oral arguments on the bank’s summary judgment motion. The bank has maintained the plaintiffs cannot show "any evidence" linking its financial services with the attacks. A trial date has not been scheduled.
One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Gary Osen of Osen LLC said in an interview, "We are obviously gratified by the opportunity to finally present our evidence to the jury." In a statement, Arab Bank called Gershon’s decision "only a preliminary ruling allowing the case to proceed to trial by a jury and the bank remains confident that the extensive evidentiary record will demonstrate at trial that the transactions at issue were routine and lawful, and the bank did not knowingly or proximately cause the acts of terrorism at issue in these cases."
