Court: Palestinian Authority liable for terror attack by teen in ‘03

The Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday held the Palestinian Authority liable for NIS 1.3 million in damages for training and indirectly encouraging a 15-and-ahalf- year-old Palestinian to murder Amit Amos Monitin on June 26, 2003.

The boy murdered Monitin while he was on the job as a technician for the Bezek telephone company in Baka al- Gharbiya, east of Hadera. The killer was caught, tried, convicted and is serving his sentence in Israel.

Several other defendants – including Bezek, a security company and Harel Insurance Company – were found contributorily liable for NIS 600,000 in damages for various roles impacting the occurrence of, or otherwise relating to, the killing.

The lawsuit was filed by both the executor of Monitin’s estate, as well as his mother Rainas.

The court said that a causal, circumstantial, factual and legal connection had been proven between the conduct of the PA, by action and omission, and the attacker.

The court did not find that the PA had initiated the specific attack in an active way, but did find that its readiness to teach a child of that age to use a weapon, in the context of the spike in Israeli-Palestinian fighting occurring at the time, created an understanding on the part of the minor that he was expected to use his weapons training to carry out an attack.

According to the court, the minor translated his understanding into action and did what was expected of him, just as he was taught at the PA training camp.

At the crux of what makes the decision so unusual is that the court found liability against the PA, even though there was no affirmative proof that it instructed the participants in its weapons-training camp to attack Israeli targets in any way.

However, because such a camp existed, it was as if it were giving instructions to carry out attacks.

Monitin and a security guard named Asher Ben- Naim had arrived at the town to fix a problem for a Bezek customer. During the course of his work, Ben-Naim had left his car, leaving Monitin alone in the vehicle. The murderer then approached the car and shot Monitin five times through a closed window.

After the attack, Ben-Naim pursued, shot, wounded and captured the boy.

Next, a Palestinian ambulance arrived, but refused to assist Monitin, taking him out of the ambulance after he was initially put in. A Magen David Adom ambulance and team eventually arrived, but it was ultimately too late.