P.A. Terrorism Trial Begins in US
JERUSALEM, Israel -- It's been said, "the wheels of justice turn slowly" and such would seem the case as the Palestinian Authority faces multiple terrorism charges dating back to the second intifada (2001-2004) in a U.S. courtroom.
With jury selection completed last week and the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to grant an interim appeal to block the trial, the proceedings begin Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Jerusalem Post reported.
In an ironic twist of fate, P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas signed the Rome Statute last week to join the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Abbas hopes to charge Israel with war crimes stemming from last summer's military incursion in the Gaza Strip to stem Palestinian rocket fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said P.A. leaders, not Israeli soldiers, should be charged.
"It is the Palestinian Authority leaders who have allied with the war criminals of Hamas who must be called to account," Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile, the P.A.'s legal team will try to prove it had no connection to terror attacks more than a decade ago during the second armed uprising against Israel.
"For the first time, the Palestinian Authority will have to defend its policy of terrorism and murder before a jury of 12 ordinary New York residents," the Post quoted Shurat HaDin, the organization representing the families of 11 Israeli victims of seven terror attacks linked to the PA.
