In late September, the Anti-Defamation League and law firm Crowell & Moring LLP filed a federal lawsuit against alleged perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, named in the suit as Hamas and six other pro-Palestinian groups.
It was the second lawsuit against Hamas filed by the ADL and the law firm, following one in July 2024 that said Iran, Syria and North Korea provided material support to Hamas that enabled it to commit atrocities in Israel.
The lead attorneys on the lawsuit, Aryeh Portnoy and Emily Alban of Crowell & Moring, answered questions about the cases, terrorism in general and their work in the Jewish community during a Dec. 16 webinar hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.
The attorneys are attempting to seek justice through the American courts for more than 140 U.S. citizens who were killed, injured or affected by the Oct. 7 attacks, and to hold the perpetrators and sponsors accountable.
At one time, Portnoy explained, such lawsuits would not have been possible.
“International terrorism, including terrorism against American victims, has been going on for a very long time, certainly ramped up in the early ‘80s,” Portnoy said at the virtual event. “And there wasn’t really a vehicle for victims to use the U.S. courts to pursue justice for cases like this, to try to sue the terrorists.”
He added that suing terrorists was often fruitless, given that state actors, who were behind the terrorism, had immunity.
In the mid-1990s, an amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act made an exception for countries deemed state sponsors of terrorism, which “opened the door to being able to bring these suits without the immunity barrier,” Portnoy said.
“Foreign states are one of the categories of defendants that you can sue, and historically, that has been one of the more productive ways of getting some sort of justice for the attacks that have happened,” Alban said at the webinar.
Those foreign states — designated “state sponsors of terrorism” by the U.S. State Department — include Iran, North Korea and Syria.
In order to bring a case to the U.S. courts, “there has to be a U.S. hook. … It’s all based on the American victim,” Portnoy said. In the case of Oct. 7, there were plenty of such hooks, such as the Americans who were at the Nova music festival in Israel when Hamas attacked.
Family members of those victims can file claims, the attorneys explain, because they have suffered anguish as a result of what happened to their loved ones.
“A lot of times, we’ll hear it described as that [survivors’ family members] essentially lost the Oct. 6 version of their family member,” Portnoy added.
“I think this is an area of interest generally, just given everything that’s happening right now with antisemitism,” said Galia Messika Greenberg, the vice president of JCRC, who moderated the event. “This is not a new topic, but it’s being highlighted, especially after Oct. 7 and now everything that’s going on as far as antisemitism all over the world, the U.S. and in our region.”
The JCRC’s webinar drew about 100 attendees, with 85 staying for the full hour.
“I’m happy to see that a lot of people tuned in, especially on this holiday that was supposed to be happy, but [with] awful news coming in from all over the world,” she said, referring to the Bondi Beach massacre. “It’s just one way to see how we can all get together and the type of impact within our community to help the victims of terror attacks.”
During the question-and-answer portion, the most common question addressed to the attorneys was, “How can I support you?”
“I think, generally, the Jewish community has really come together after Oct. 7,” Messika Greenberg said. “People come together, people want to help and lend a hand in whatever way they can.”
She added that the D.C. community is the ideal target audience for this informative session, given the area’s abundance of lawyers.
“D.C. is really an area where a lot of the hostages and families and victims have come to speak and raise awareness and meet with presidents and all those kinds of things,” Messika Greenberg said. “So this type of advocacy, litigation, is a natural fit in this area.”
“Information is power, so people knowing that all this exists [matters],” Portnoy said.
