by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Feb 18 - For the UN's role in Hamas' October 7 attacks, non-US citizen plaintiffs and estates on June 24 filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, Pierre Krahenbuhl, Filippo Grandi, Leni Stenseth, Sandra Mitchel, Margot Ellis and Greta Gunnarsdottir.
The individual plaintiffs are sued for, inter alia, their "constant travel to New York" to raise and get money and "their material support of Hamas' terror infrastructure." Also cited, for jurisdiction and venue, is "over one billion dollars from UNRWA's New York bank account in Manhattan that Defendants then caused to be delivered to Gaza in cash U.S. dollars to benefit Hamas."
Inner City Press, which daily cover the SDNY court in-person and the UN from outside the gate, banned from entry by SG Antonio Guterres, asked Guterres' spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming about the lawsuit, without any response per usual.
Nor have they responded to Inner City Press' June 19 application to enter the UN to ask these questions.
On November 14, after the election, UNRWA used public money to hire Curtis, Mallet-Provest. On December 16 they filed a 38 page memo now on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud here
On January 21, 2025, hours after UNRWA's actions on October 7, 2023 were repeatedly raised to Elise Stefanik in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, UNRWA's and Guterres' lawyers, with taxpayer funds, filed a reply that "the U.S. has taken the position that Defendants qualify for immunity. Dkt. No. 17. Nothing more is needed." Reply memo on DocumentCloud here. Will that remain the US' position?
No. On February 18, the (new) SDNY wrote in, "The Government is currently reviewing the views expressed in the July 30 and October 18, 2024 letters. For that reason, the Government respectfully requests that the Court defer taking any action concerning the immunities of the defendants until the Government has had time to complete this review. The Government respectfully requests the Court’s leave to provide an update in sixty days, by April 21, 2025, regarding its review process." Letter on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud here
The UNRWA case is ESTATE OF TAMAR KEDEM SIMAN TOV, BY HEIR-AT-LAW GAD KEDEM v. UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY (UNRWA) et al., 24-cv-04765 (Torres)
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.
Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
