PA calls guilty terror ruling a 'tragic disservice to the millions of Palestinians'

The PLO and the Palestinian Authority expressed “deep disappointment” over the decision by the jury in the case of “Sokolow v. Palestine Liberation Organization et al.”Mahmoud Khalifa, deputy Palestinian minister of information, said that the charges made against the PLO and PA are “baseless.”He said that the New York Court ignored the legal precedent set time and again by other US courts – including a ruling last week by a Federal Judge in Washington DC, that established that US localities are not the proper jurisdiction for such a hearing.“We will appeal this decision and we are confident that we will prevail,” Khalifa said in a first response to the verdict. “We have faith in the US legal system and are certain about our common sense belief and our strong legal standing.”He claimed that the case is “just the latest attempt by hardline anti-peace factions in Israel to use and abuse the US legal system to advance their narrow political and ideological agenda: to block the two-state solution, advance the illegal settlements in our land, continue to attack and divert the PLO and PA’s limited resources from needed services and programs for our people.”In his statement, Khalifa said that the decision is a “tragic disservice to the millions of Palestinians who have invested in the democratic process and the rule of law in order to seek justice and redress their grievances, and to the international community which has invested so much in financial aid and political capital in a two-state solution in which the PLO and PA are paramount.”The Palestinian official said that the Palestinians will continue to combat extremism and violence and maintain a strong commitment to nonviolent resistance and international, legal political and moral redress. “We stand ready to be a partner in peace and an unyielding advocate for the rights of our people,” he added.