US Judge Dismisses Oct. 7 Victims’ Suit Against UNRWA, Citing Immunity Despite DoJ Ruling By The Media Line Staff A US federal judge has dismissed a $1 billion lawsuit filed by families of victims of the October 7 Hamas attack against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), ruling that the UN body is immune […]
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The Media Line: US Judge Dismisses Oct. 7 Victims’ Suit Against UNRWA, Citing Immunity Despite DoJ Ruling
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US Judge Dismisses Oct. 7 Victims’ Suit Against UNRWA, Citing Immunity Despite DoJ Ruling
By The Media Line Staff
A US federal judge has dismissed a $1 billion lawsuit filed by families of victims of the October 7 Hamas attack against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), ruling that the UN body is immune from litigation in American courts.
The case, Estate of Tamar Kedem Simon Tov v. UNRWA, was brought last year in the Southern District of New York by more than 100 Israeli plaintiffs, including survivors and relatives of those killed or abducted during the massacre.
US District Judge Analisa Torres dismissed the case, writing that “because UNRWA is a subsidiary organ of the United Nations and has not waived its immunity, this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.”
The plaintiffs accused UNRWA of aiding Hamas by allowing funds and resources to be diverted to tunnels, weapons, and other support for the assault. The lawsuit also named seven current and former senior UNRWA officials, among them Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, former Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl, and Filippo Grandi, now the UN high commissioner for refugees
Judge Torres’ decision to dismiss the case stands in contrast to a letter submitted in April by the Department of Justice, which said UNRWA “is not immune from this litigation” and asserted that the agency bore responsibility for “heinous offenses” carried out by Hamas on October 7. The position diverged from the Biden administration’s earlier stance, which had maintained that UNRWA could not be sued in US courts.
Among the plaintiffs are high-profile victims’ families, such as Gadi and Reuma Kedem, whose daughter Tamar, her husband Yonatan, and their three young children were murdered at Kibbutz Nir Oz. Ditza Heiman, abducted from the kibbutz and later released in a prisoner exchange, is also a party to the case.
Attorneys for the families denounced the ruling. “The judge totally misinterpreted the most important argument that we made,” lawyer Gavriel Mairone said, adding that his team will appeal. “We’re definitely appealing and we think, respectfully, that the judge’s opinion is erroneous.”
The ruling highlights a legal and political clash over UNRWA’s accountability, coming months after revelations that several agency employees were implicated in the October 7 assault.