A new lawsuit has been filed in New York against Qatari financial institutions and charity accusing them of funneling money to fund Palestinian extremist groups responsible for the killing of Americans in Israel, according to an initial court complaint filed to the court.
Tuesday’s suit directly alleges that Qatar had funneled money to groups in Palestine under the guise of charitable donations that were then used to fund Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
The initial complaint was filed on Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn by the family of Pinches Przewozman, an American who was killed in rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip on May 5, 2019.
“To accomplish its goal of spreading acts of terrorism and violence in Israel while evading international sanctions, Qatar coopted several institutions that it dominates and controls to funnel coveted U.S. dollars (the primary currency of Middle East terrorist networks) to Hamas and PIJ under the false guise of charitable donations,” read the 71-page legal complaint document obtained by Al Arabiya English.
Przewozman’s family are directly accusing Qatar Charity, Masraf Al Rayan Bank and Qatar National Bank in their case against Qatar.
The lawsuit said accused Qatar Charity of soliciting donations in Qatar and around the world and then transferring those funds to its account at Masraf Al Rayan in Doha, Qatar.
The new lawsuit filed on Tuesday follows an earlier complaint filed separately in June by US attorney Steven Perles, who has prosecuted notable cases involving terrorism and terror-financing on behalf of families and victims seeking compensation of past terror attacks.
“Masraf Al Rayan then utilized its “correspondent” bank account located in New York to conduct transactions involving U.S. dollars (“USD”) and to transfer funds from Doha, through New York, to Qatar Charity’s accounts in the Palestinian Territories at either the Bank of Palestine or the Islamic Bank in Ramallah,” according to the complaint.
That lawsuit also accuses Qatar of secretly funding Hamas and the PIJ groups with millions of dollars who carried out terror attacks that killed US citizens. Perles specifically alleges that the money used by Hamas and PIJ were used to carry out at least six attacks between 2014 and 2016. The June lawsuit said that between March and September 2015, Qatar Charity gave $28 million to groups in the Palestinian territories that may have been then transferred to Hamas and PIJ.
