Court Rules Palestinian Groups Liable for Americans Killed in Terror; Nets Silent
A story fit for the top fold of the front page of the New York Times Tuesday morning wasn’t important enough, apparently, for the big three networks to cover on Monday and Tuesday’s evening news broadcasts. Though they did find time to talk about a new development in treatment of peanut allergies.
On the upper right corner of the New York Times, Feb. 24, the headline read “Palestine Groups Are Found Liable At Terror Trial.” The story went on to say that two groups- “The Palestinian Authority” and “The Palestine Liberation Organization” were found responsible for supporting six separate terrorist attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004. A Manhattan court has charged the groups with $655.5 million worth of damages for American victims killed in these attacks.
While the Palestinian terror groups said they would appeal the verdict, the lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case said they were confident they would be able to seize the groups’ assets if they refused to pay.
The ruling comes as a result of the Anti-Terrorism Act, a law which allows American citizens who are victims of international terrorism, to take the individuals and groups responsible to court. In this case, families of the 33 people killed and the more than 450 people injured sued the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization and won.
Surely, American victims of terrorist attacks receiving some level of justice in the court system would be important enough for NBC, ABC, and CBS to even mention but they didn’t. NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight and CBS Evening News instead devoted a segment to a study showing 80% of kids born with peanut allergies improve if exposed to peanuts at an early age, on Feb. 23, the day the court’s ruling was handed down.
The nets ignoring Palestinian acts of terrorism against Israel, rooted in Islamic anti-semitism,is nothing new. This past Summer, they refused to acknowledge when the Islamic, Palestinian terrorist group Hamas admitted to kidnapping and killing three American-Israeli teens from Jerusalem.
Laughably, MSNBC has even called the media “disgustingly biased” against Palestine, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. The New York Times has shown a history of being strongly biased against Israel as well, which is why this story, and this one, receiving top billing is a notable change from their usual reporting.
— Kristine Marsh is Staff Writer for MRC Culture at the Media Research Center. Follow Kristine Marsh on Twitter.
