.

,
.
.,
, ,
, . ,
,

64

( : ; : , " " , ,210"; , 22")

, .
,

65


.
.
100 ,
"
"
3
,

. :
,
, .


, .

,
, , ,
.
.
.

,
,
, .
.
, ,
,
.
,
, .
.
,
.
? :
,
?.
.2005

.
,
100
,

66

, ,

.
,
.
3 ,

.
2007 .
,
,
.
,

.
: ? .
- ,,
. .

, ,2003
,
.
" , .
,
.
,
,
,
.
,
, .
,
1.5 .
,

120 .

,
,, .
"

,
. .
,

,
, ,
,

. ,
. ,
. , ,
,
.

, .

, :,

?

?
,
' .
, .
.
,
,
, ,
, ,
2013

2013

67

68

,
, .
( ) .
,

.
.

1211
. ,
,.

,


, .
,
.

,
2013

( : ,)

.
.

?
,
.
,

.
, ,

. .

. .
,
. " , .
.
, 22
,
.
, ,

,
.
, ?
.
,
. ,
, ,
. ,
.
, ?.
, ,
.


?
.

22

, .

, .
. .
, , .
. ,
, .
, .
,
. :
, ,
. ,
,
, ?
. , ,
, .
? , , :
.
, .
. ,
, .
. ? , .

,

?
.
,
.
. .

, .
?

, .
,
.

, .
.
,2004 100

,
200
,

,
.
: , ,
.
, ,
, ,
. ,
.
,
,
,
.
.

2013

69

" :

.
,

. .
,
. ,
,
.
, ,
".
" :
,
,
. ' ,
, ' ,
'' ".

70

.
, .

, , ,
, ,
,
.
, ,
,
.


. ,2004
,

. ,
,
40 .
,
, ,
.

,

.
, .
.
.
,

.

.
.

.
,
.
, .

. .
,
, .
,
.
,
, .
.
?
.
. ,
,
.
".
?
?

. .
.
.
,
, ,
,
.
?
,
-
,
.
, ,
,
.


. , .
, .
,
,
.

( : )

:
"
.
,

.
,
,
.
,
,
. ,
,
, .
"

.

,
,

.
,
.
.
".

,"


.


.

,

,
,

.
,
.
,

"

"

.
, . ,
,
. .

,40 , .
,
, .
.
.
.

, : ,
? .
.
.
.


" . ,
, ,

.
"
2013

( ,")

. ,
.
" , ,
, .
,
,
. ?
. .
, .
,
".
, "

,
, ,

. ,
.

, .
.
,
.
, .
2013

" "

.
?
" .
' : , ?' . .
,
,

,
, .
, .
" . ,
,
.

. .
,
,
,
. ".
?

, , .
,
, ,
, ,

71

Nov 2013 Lady Globes

The State of Israel Stayed Behind:

She does not have the mind of an anarchist,
she does not engage in street fights
She has led tens of lawsuits against terrorist groups and state sponsors of terror. Courtrooms around the world
have ruled in her favor in amounts close to 1 billion dollars and have allowed her to seize finances and assets in
order to bankrupt terrorists. Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is leading battles that the State of Israel does not
wish to conduct. Now, for the first time, she is fighting the state itself, which requested her to launch a major
lawsuit against the Bank of China, but has abandoned her in the New York court. "They sent me to fight, made use
of victims of terror, and abandoned them."
Tehiya Barak Photography: Eyal Yitzhar

Last April, Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner

found herself in the middle of a story that
seemed as if it was taken from a suspense novel.
At the heart of the plot: global economic
interests, political and diplomatic pressures, and
Israel-China relations. On that spring day,
Darshan received a telephone call from the
American attorneys of the Shurat HaDin
organization which she heads. These attorneys
manage the lawsuit by the Israeli terror victims
against the Bank of China, the central bank of
China, where, they allege, accounts serving
terror organizations in Gaza were operated.

Shaya but any intelligence officials with any part

in the matter.

This was an urgent phone call. The feeling was

that the ground beneath their legs was
crumbling. The Bank of China's representatives
happily announced to the court in New York
that the central witness in the case, the former
intelligence official Uzi Shaya, who had warned
the Chinese about these accounts, would not be
testifying. Darshan was beside herself. In the
first instance she was surprised, and then she
was angry, and finally she was enraged and
threatened that she would subpoena not only

The story begins in 2005. "The Israeli security

community discovered that the Bank of China
operated accounts belonging to a Hamas activist
in Gaza. He received funds from the Hamas
headquarters in Jordan and Syria, and each time
they transferred a round sum of one hundred
thousand dollars, that would be deposited in the
Chinese account in the Province of Guangzhou,
a very active province from the perspective of
terrorism, because China does not classify the
Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations as
terrorist organizations. The funds passed from

"The first telephone call was to Shaya, who

admitted there was a problem," she says. "The
next phone calls were to senior officials in the
intelligence community. I was very angry, and
had difficultyp remaining calm during these
conversations. I need to hear from the Chinese
that Israel has broken her promises to me? I told
them 'You have placed us in an insane situation,'
and they said to me 'Do you think that if you
raise your voice it will help?'"

"We are a non-profit organization, and depend

on donations of 1.5 million dollars a year. Until
today we have been awarded over one billion
dollars in judgments, and have collected more
than 120 million dollars."

China to the bank in New York, where they were

immediately withdrawn and transferred to
Gaza. We are talking about accounts which had
at least 3 million dollars pass through them
during the Intifada years, at a time when Gaza
was under siege and this money was needed by
it like air to breathe in order to carry out terror
attacks.

Almost since the beginning she has been

cooperating with Israeli intelligence groups and
in particular with Galgal a body which is made
up of representatives from the Shabak, Mossad,
Military Intelligence and the National Security
Council. This cooperation increased "when they
saw in the war against terror financing one of
the most important elements for defeating
terrorism, and since then Galgal began
approaching us. They see us as a tool for
attacking terrorist bodies."

"In 2007 an intelligence organization approached

me. The intelligence officials told me the story,
described how they met with the managers of
the bank and warned them, and how the latter
did nothing. Funds to finance terror continued to
flow into Gaza, and the Chinese claimed that
there was no problem with these accounts, and
that no Chinese laws had been broken. The
intelligence officials concluded their story and
asked me: 'Can you sue the bank?' They
promised that they would help with all that was
needed testimonies, documents, evidence. I
immediately began working."

Five years into the trial, millions of dollars have

been poured into the lawsuit and to finance legal
expenses, serious threats were received from the
Bank of China, including a promise that it will
be put to a criminal trial in China, and above all,
terror victims will be forced to return to the
attacks and pull out their bloodied stories as
evidence. "And after all of this, Israel chooses to
retreat. I ask why, and do not receive substantive
answers. My trustworthy sources, and in
general, anyone who knows the details of this
case, speak of Chinese pressures and the IsraelChina relations which are on the agenda."

"We will not give up"

The work began through the Shurat HaDin
organization, that Darshan-Leitner founded in
2003, at the height of the Second Intifada for the
purpose of fighting terror financing. She was
inspired by a legal center in southern United
States, which sues neo-Nazi organizations.

"If Israel had not retreated from involvement in

the case, Netanyahu's visit to China would not
have taken place. Recently, I had a meeting with
the Justice Ministry and the National Security
Council, I said there: "Excuse me, but when you
came and asked me to bring this lawsuit didn't
you know China was a power? Did you not
know that maybe one day you would want to
warm up the relationship? You cannot begin a
legal process in a United States court and then
eliminate it in one swoop, because now you

She serves as the director of the organization,

and supervises a team of 10 lawyers. To this day
she has launched tens of lawsuits against state
sponsors of terrorism, terrorist groups and other
bodies who take part in the matter, and has used
tools such as freezing funds and assets in order
to bankrupt them [the terrorists]. The
organization receives donations from Jews
around the world, and from evangelical
Christians who love Israel.
2

decided that China is more important.' They did

not answer me, they only asked that we be
patient."

- When you investigated the substance of this

memorandum, how did they respond?
"At every point I got promises that it will be
okay, that Uzi will testify. Today I understand
that the Chinese had already known what I did
not know, that at the moment of truth, the State
of Israel would not help. Otherwise, where did
they receive the confidence to declare each time
in court that the lawsuit was unfounded, despite
all the documents I presented?"

Darshan promises that she will blink last. "If the

testimony is not forthcoming, I will ask the court
to subpoena high-ranking Israeli officials, among
them the head of the National Security Council,
Yaakov Amidror, and the former Israeli
ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren,
requiring them to testify. We will not give up the
testimony, and the court will not give up either."

"Flinching as if From Fire"

- Were There not Earlier Signs That Israel

Would Retreat?
"Listen, I worked closely with the intelligence
groups the entire time. They provided us with
details on a few accounts, to show the Bank of
China that we knew what we were talking
about. We also obtained an affidavit from a
former intelligence official, Shlomo Matalon,
who describes the meetings in China in which
the Bank of China officials were warned. I was
promised that Shaya would testify. In March, we
were still worked with the legal department of
the security community on the condition of this
testimony. We agreed that he would not testify
publicly, that his face and name would not be
revealed and that the testimony would be given
in Israel. A month later, the State of Israel broke
all its promises."

- How do you feel now?

"Listen, it is a terrible story. I dragged 22
families, victims of terrorism, to file a lawsuit.
The court in New York has been adjudicating the
matter for a number of years. I found myself in a
personal fight against one of the biggest banks in
the world. They threatened me with a six page
letter. I can't travel to China. I traveled to
Thailand recently without going through China,
I do not take risks.
"I relied upon the promises of the security
groups. They sent me to fight, made use of
victims of terror and discarded them. We went
through obstacles with this case, victims of terror
being questioned without their feelings being
taken into consideration, being torn to pieces.
'Maybe you were mentally imbalanced before
the terror attack," or 'Why did you knowingly
choose to be a resident of Sderot, a war zone?'
these were the questions the other side asked
without mercy."

"What is funny is that during the whole case, the

Bank of China taunted us and said we do not
have any witnesses or evidence and that the
lawsuit was unfounded. Already three years
ago, during the discovery stage, we received a
memorandum from the Chinese Foreign
Ministry stating that they will deny these
meetings and that the Israelis will deny them as
well."

"It is an extremely difficult process. And now,

the State of Israel who sent them there has
shaken itself from them, abandoned them. What
was the country's goal? To take these victims of
terrorism, to use them to sue and to close the
accounts. These accounts really were closed,
after about a year, mysteriously, but now I am
3

"We had a previous bitter experience with the

country. In 2004, after we obtained a $100
million judgment against the Palestinian
Authority on account of its responsibility for a
shooting attack in which a couple in the Beit
Shemesh area was murdered, and obtained a
$200 million judgment in the wake of a terror
attack at a Bar Mitzvah in which the event's
singer was killed, security officials approached
me and said that Israel was transferring funds to
the Palestinian Authority through the Postal
Bank, and that I should move to seize these
funds. This was the statement by the State [of
Israel]: "Yes, we are transferring funds to you,
but we can also place sanctions on you." I filed
the freeze request, but when I asked for account
numbers, dates and amounts, I was notified that
the State [of Israel] had backtracked, and that
there was a change in policy. I had no option but
to pull my lawsuit."

asking the country to fulfill its part of the

bargain. Let the victims of terrorism receive
compensation for the damages caused to them as
a result of the Bank of China's actions."
"It is inappropriate and unbefitting for the State
of Israel as a country that fights terror. Israel has
lost its mind in this story. I am not saying that
you should clap your hands for us, but at least
don't put obstacles in our way. Generally, you
do not subjugate a war on terrorism for the
benefit of economic interests. If Netanyahu
wanted to solve this issue, he should have told
the Chinese government: There are victims of
terrorism here, there are legal proceedings, do
you want to stop these proceedings and prevent
embarrassing testimonies? End this story, close
the accounts, and compensate the victims.
Instead, Netanyahu folded and said: 'No
problem, Uzi will not testify.' Whoever hears this
tells me this is short-term thinking befitting to
the State of Israel, befitting to Netanyahu."

"I thought I learned my lesson, because when

they approached me with the story about the
Bank of China, I asked for a promise that I
would have their assistance, and here we see the
promise broken. Next time we will start working
on a case only when all of the materials and
evidence are with me on my desk."

- Have you thought about asking former highranking government officials to mediate with
this story?
"Of course. We approached former officials from
the security and intelligence groups for
assistance, but all of them refused. People are
scared of this story as if from fire. It is shrouded
in secrecy. We only know that the decision was
made by the Prime Minister's Office, and we all
know the meaning of that."

The Shah's Palace

She is married to Aviel, an American Jurist who
also works in the organization, and they have six
children. They live in Hashmonaim ("a yuppie
settlement"). Even though she is religious, she
does not cover her hair and the miniskirt she
wears is not really up to standards. Her day
starts at five in the morning. "Sometimes I leave
before the kids get up and return at 11-12 at
night. My husband is with them more, there is
family that helps, a nanny. I used to even travel
abroad for three weeks at a time, but today I try
to divide up my travels and not to go away for
more than ten days. But there isn't anything we

- Where does the case stand now?

"The State of Israel has informed the court that it
is still deliberating, thinking. This month, a
decision must be reached, I hope they get over it
and send Shaya to testify."
- This is not the first time you have fought for
the country and then discovered you were
alone.
4

transfer funds from Israel to the Strip. "We

notified the heads of the banks that they are at
risk of funding terror and being criminally and
civilly liable. They became scared and told the
State they would close the accounts. As an
organization of lawyers, we do what the State
and the intelligence bodies do not do. A country
cannot sue banks that assist in funding terror,
terror groups or state sponsors of terrorism. The
State [of Israel] has foreign relations which it
takes into account, politically correct."

can do, it is a war that has to be fought, and it is

not the type of work you can do halfway. Either
you invest your entire self, or you don't do it at
all."
These days the organization manages lawsuits
by terror victims against Iran, Syria, Lebanon,
the Palestinian Authority, North Korea, Hamas
and the Islamic Jihad, and against banks such as
American Express and the Lebanese Canadian
Bank. She has teams of experts in the United
States and Canada, and she travels there a lot,
but does not practice in court there as she does
not have a United States law license or expertise
in American law. One of the major
accomplishments of the organization was when
she made sure that a United States law was
passed providing that the right of terror victims
trumps any other law. This was in 2004, when
she won a lawsuit against Iran, and asked to
seize accounts belonging to the Iranian regime in
United States banks. Her request was denied,
and she made sure the law would be approved,
and after a year the victims of terror who won
the lawsuit received $40 million.

"I can sue the Palestinian Authority and continue

with it to the bitter end. I have loyalty to the
client, to the court. There is no "Sorry, now I
want to be friends with China, let's pull the
lawsuit.' That doesnt work."

"I Stood up Trembling with Fear"

Darshan, 40, was born to parents from Iran.
"They arrived in the country right after it was
founded, during the youth immigration period,
for Zionist reasons. My mother married my
father because he was an intellectual. For years
they pushed us to excellence and values. My
parents wanted me to be a doctor. When I did
my national service in Magen David Adom and I
saw the long hours doctors put in, I told myself:
'This is crazy, how can you work these hours
and also raise a family?' So I went to study law.
If only I would have known how many hours I
would work and how long I would be away
from home."

In another case, she worked to sell a palace

belonging to the son of the Shah in Texas, which
had become the property of the Revolutionary
Guard, to satisfy amounts she had been awarded
in the lawsuit. An Iranian collection that was at
the University of Chicago was also placed in
danger when the organization members read a
small article in a local newspaper that the
Iranians were requesting the return of the
collection. "I immediately asked the court to give
the collection to us, in favor of the compensation
which was ruled. The Iranians opposed and the
judge threw them out. We are now discussing
the matter with the University of Chicago."

Her legal activities on behalf of victims of

terrorism she began already as a law student at
Bar Ilan University. "These were the Oslo years,
and a few law students, myself included, saw
how Israel was not operating to arrest murderers
and was even allowing arch-murderers to enter
the country. We decided to file a petition in
Israel's high court against the arrival of Abu

When Hamas rose to power in Gaza, she warned

Bank HaPoalim and Bank Discount to not
5

children killed in terror attacks, and I have no

doubt that the lawsuit will succeed and they will
receive large monetary compensation, but I fear
they will not receive this while they are alive,
and that is unfair. It is often frustrating, painful
and irksome."

Abbas (Muhammad Zaidan) who was appointed

as a member of the Palestinian National Council,
and was supposed to vote for the Oslo Accords.
We did not have money for lawyers, and my
friends decided that I should argue."
"I dressed nicely, put on high heels, I rose to
argue trembling with fear, but I did it with
fervor. The court encouraged me to pull the
petition, because it had no authority to intervene
in a political matter, and recommended that I
consult with my clients. What clients? We came
on our own accord. I insisted on continuing. The
court rejected the petition, but quoted my words.
We also did not receive an order for expenses
back, something we could not have paid as poor
students."

"Not everyone can deal with this. I am a fighter,

and I know to separate the mind from the
emotion, I work using my mind. I also admit
that the adrenaline flows in my body when I am
fighting all these strong entities. The small
victories on the way strengthen me. Recently, in
a case against the Lebanese Canadian Bank
which provided financial services to Hezbollah,
the bank claimed that the court had no standing
to discuss the case, because it does not have any
branches in the United States. We defeated this
argument."

In another case, in the Jerusalem District Court

against the Palestinian Authority for a terror
attack on a school bus in Kfar Darom, Darshan
was forced to threaten then foreign minister,
Tzipi Livni, that she will be held in contempt of
court if she does not file an affidavit. "The
[Palestinian] Authority claimed it was a country,
and as such has sovereign immunity and cannot
be sued. The High Court ruled that the one who
can decide whether the [Palestinian] Authority is
a country or not would be Livni. She did not do
this. Only after we filed a request to hold her in
contempt of court did she submit the document
that determined that the [Palestinian] Authority
was not a country. After that the case moved
forward."

"I am a fighter"

- Why do you succeed and the country fails?

"The war has moved form the combat zone to
the legal, public and social zone. They fight
against Israel on Facebook, fight by means of
boycotts, diplomatic measures, and these are the
most destructive means, because they are seen as
permitted, legitimate. You can't fight freedom of
speech. The State of Israel has remained behind,
it does not have the mind of an anarchist, it does
not engage in street fights. Israel is managed by
bureaucrats, with lawyers who come from the
States Attorneys office and who were educated
in a certain way. We act in a different way, think
creatively, outside the box. It is a sharpness that
these bureaucrats may not have because they
have been in the system for many years."

- These cases take years. How do you deal with

this?
"It isn't simple. There are victims who call up
every year and ask: 'Nu, what is happening?' It is
very painful. We have victims of terrorism who
continue to grow older, mainly parents of

- What does the country need to do?

"The country chooses to be solely on the
defensive. It is attacked and then tries to defend
itself. There is no strategic thinking, no offensive
thinking, dont wait for the anarchists to think of
their next brilliant move. They do not initiate
6

moves that will prevent these things in the first

place."
- Do you oversee the State of Israel? Do you
take more care than it for its safety?
"The State of Israel does not need to transfer
funds to terrorism. The country does not always
act correctly. Sometimes it has irrational
considerations. It has to make these decisions
because of pressures. Our organization and I,
who are not under the same pressures, can be
Israel's light, to show her the way, to act for the
country's security and citizens."
- What happens to the soul while dealing with
terrorism?
"Most of the work is the legal fight, the tactics we
need to employ in order to beat the other side
among the biggest offices in the Untied States
and Canada, and you need to be more cunning
than them. I don't think about death, but about
life, about the daily struggle of these people to
survive, and the way in which I can help them
turn this tragedy into a victory. How I give them
the power and motivation to transform
themselves from a victim to someone who is
fighting an enemy who sought to destroy his
world. So yes, I hear testimonies and cry. In the
courtroom the judge also cries, and the court
reporter as well. But I remember that this is a
fight against terrorism, the victims of terror are
players in this war, without them we would not
be able to conduct this struggle."