A federal judge slammed as “mealy-mouthed” the U.S. policy of avoiding a position on lawsuits against the PLO.
“The executive branch of the United States has been particularly unhelpful in resolving this difficult motion,” Judge Gladys Kessler wrote in a Dec. 29 opinion in a ruling that allows the family of Esh Gilmore, murdered in Jerusalem in 2000, to go ahead with its lawsuit against the Palestine Liberation Organization. The family claims that the PLO-allied militia the Tanzim was behind the deadly shooting attack.
Kessler, a District Court judge in Washington, had sought guidance from the State Department on the foreign policy implications of going forward with the case. The Obama administration, consistent with the Bush administration, has avoided commenting on such suits.
Referring to an earlier State Department statement concerning a separate lawsuit against the PLO, Kessler said: “It filed the identical mealy-mouthed notice there as it did in this case. That notice, for all practical purposes, said nothing and certainly provided no substantive guidance whatsoever to the court regarding the government’s position or concerns about any impact a decision might have on the delicate situation in the Middle East.” — jta