Last update - 00:00 07/04/2007
Lawyer: PA funds in N.Y. still frozen, despite court ruling
By Reuters
A New York court has ordered $30 million in Palestine Monetary Authority funds unfrozen and allowed it to resume operations in the United States after a court fight stemming from a 1996 Hamas attack, but an attorney for the family of the victims of the attack said the funds remained frozen pending further legal action.
At a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Authority said on Saturday that an April 2 ruling by the Supreme Court of the State of New York cleared the way for it to carry out functions as the Palestinian central bank.
The PA had been unable to access the funds or carry out U.S. dollar transactions since 2005 because of a years-old court case brought by the family of Yaron Ungar, a Brooklyn-born rabbinical student in Israel, where he lived with his wife and two young children. His wife, Efrat, was also killed in the attack.
But U.S. lawyer David Strachman, who represents the Ungar family, said the funds were in fact not yet released, and remained frozen. "There are several more steps to go, and we have other mechanisms" in place to pursue the case, he told Reuters in a telephone interview on
Saturday.
In 2005, a federal court in Rhode Island ordered a freeze of all U.S.-based assets of the Palestinian Authority after the Palestinian government failed to pay $116 million in damages imposed by the court in 2004, according to legal documents.
The suit alleged that the Palestinian Authority was culpable because it failed to take steps to stop Hamas militants from carrying out such attacks.
The Supreme Court of the State of New York said the Palestine Monetary Authority "is a separate entity from the Palestinian Authority and the money in its name ... should be released."
"We're very, very pleased it's over," said George Abed, the Palestine Monetary Authority's governor.
"The PMA will now proceed to reengage in its full range of statutory responsibilities of safeguarding monetary and financial stability and promoting economic growth," he said.
Strachman said however "the case continues to be litigated. There are several procedures in place, including an appeal."
Abed said the order would take effect within days.
"We are now free to operate in dollars in the U.S. and elsewhere," he said.
Abed said the lawsuit had prevented the authority from performing the normal functions of a central bank. Both the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Monetary Authority were established by the 1994 Oslo Accords.
The court had ruled that the monetary authority performs many of the functions of a national central bank, such as insuring the soundness of the banking system, maintaining monetary stability and encouraging economic growth.
"We're disappointed," Strachman said of the New York ruling, "and feel the decision goes against the overwhelming weight of authority. ... The Palestinian Authority still refuses, three years later, to pay the judgment and as a result they're legal scofflaws."