Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president and founder of the Shurat HaDin Law Center, says that the path to defeating terrorism is remarkably straightforward.
“If all the democratic states would unify and wage financial war against terror regimes, terror organizations, and terror-sponsoring states,” she posited, “they could eliminate evil from the world. They would not have to shoot a single bullet or kill anyone – it could be accomplished by financial means.”
Over the past 23 years, Darshan-Leitner has pioneered the legal and economic fight against terrorism. She recounted the resolution of two recent terror victim cases that illustrate the potential inherent in her methods.
The first case was a ruling this past April by the federal Court of Appeals in New York, reinstating a 2015 judgment in the case of Sokolow vs the Palestinian Authority, ordering the defendants, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, to pay $655 million in damages to victims of terrorism from the period of the Second Intifada.
The original lawsuit was filed by 10 families of terror victims wounded during the Second Intifada. Among the victims were members of the Gritz, Coulter, Blutstein, and Carter families, who lost their children in the bombing of the Hebrew University cafeteria; the Goldberg family, which lost their father in a bus bombing in Jerusalem; and other victims that included Shaina Gold, Jonathan and Alan Bauer, Shaul Mendelcorn, and Mark Sokolow, who were wounded in various attacks on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem.
In 2015, following a high-stakes seven-week trial in Manhattan, a federal jury found the Palestinian Authority and the PLO liable for terrorist attacks and awarded the victims $655m. in damages. However, the ruling was later overturned by an appeals court, which found insufficient connection and contacts between the Palestinian Authority and the US and said the lower court lacked jurisdiction.
For the next decade, the victims and their attorneys – Kent Yalowitz and Nitsana Darshan-Leitner – fought the case all the way to the US Supreme Court. In 2019, Congress passed the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (PSJVTA), expanding US jurisdiction over foreign entities tied to terrorism.
In May 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” payments to terrorists established sufficient grounds for US jurisdiction. The appeals court subsequently fully reinstated the original 2015 judgment, citing the lengthy legal battle and Congress’s strong interest in combating terrorism.
Rather than ordering a retrial, the court held that the law applied retroactively and reinstated the original 2015 judgment. Darshan-Leitner is certain that she will be able to collect the $655m. judgment for her clients.
“This money will absolutely be collected. The PLO has a mission in New York, and we are going to go after their building. We’re also going to speak with the State Department and point out that the Palestinian Authority litigated this case for 22 years. They were afforded every legal opportunity and benefit, and cannot just ignore the judgment and not pay it. If they refuse, we’ll go to Israel and enforce it against the tax money that Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority. They have a lot of assets from which we’ll be able to collect on our judgment.”
Explaining the significance of the ruling, Darshan-Leitner said, “We wanted a decision from the federal court in New York before a jury to declare who’s responsible for the intifada. We received this decision, and we won. It came in 2015, at a time when the Palestinian Authority went to the International Criminal Court for the first time and complained that Israel was violating international law and committing war crimes.
“And now, a jury in New York declared that the Palestinian Authority is the one that’s breaking the law and paying money to the convicted terrorists and inciting and supporting terrorism, and found them responsible for all these acts.”
A SECOND significant case that Darshan-Leitner recounted was a March 2026 judgment against Iran for $318m., filed on behalf of terror victims of Iran-supported attacks. The families will receive a payout from the proceeds of the sale of an Iranian-owned skyscraper in Manhattan, following nearly two decades of legal proceedings.
Among those expected to receive compensation are families of victims of the 2001 Sbarro restaurant bombing in Jerusalem, one of the deadliest suicide attacks of the Second Intifada, in which 15 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. The attack was carried out by Hamas with Iranian support. Victims of other Iran-backed terrorist attacks are also set to receive compensation. Darshan-Leitner explained that Iran usually does not bother to send lawyers to defend itself in US courts. “However, once you touch their assets, they immediately come and litigate. After 20 years of litigation, the families won.
“These cases show that the fight against their financing is paying off. You have to chase them, take significant amounts of money from the terrorists, and give it to those who deserve it most, the terror victims.”
Shurat HaDin is currently working on other cases, such as a complaint filed with the International Criminal Court in The Hague against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, alleging that Spain assisted the Iranian regime by transferring dual-use explosive-related components during 2024-2025 valued at €1.3m. Shurat HaDin charges that Spain, which has repeatedly criticized Israel and restricted US access to American bases in Andalusia during the US-Israel war with Iran, has itself supplied components required by the Iranian regime for military purposes, thereby aiding war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The organization has also filed a motion with the International Criminal Court to investigate the emir of Qatar for possible obstruction of justice. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the emir told Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the court, that if he would indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the case for war crimes and crimes against humanity due to the war in Gaza, he would “look after” Khan, regarding allegations of sexual assault that were brought against him.
ONE OF Shurat HaDin’s most important recent initiatives is not a lawsuit or legal challenge. Rather, it is a smartphone app that provides legal protection to IDF soldiers and reservists facing harassment or prosecution abroad. The app, called Shachpatz (Hebrew slang for “flak jacket”), is designed to protect soldiers – including both active-duty personnel and reservists – while traveling outside Israel and offers essential tools to improve their personal safety and security.
Shachpatz includes guidelines for conduct before traveling abroad, advice on what to avoid posting on social media, information on how to respond to questioning, and instructions for handling situations involving detention or arrest by local authorities.
In addition, the app provides full contact details – including direct phone numbers and email addresses – for all Israeli embassies and consulates worldwide, enabling users to make immediate contact in emergencies. Shachpatz also allows users to receive information and alerts from other users regarding developments in various countries, with the aim of warning travelers about anticipated risks and threats.
Behind the Shachpatz app, soon available for download on both the Android and Apple app stores, stands Shurat HaDin’s legal assistance command center, staffed by more than 600 lawyers from 17 countries, who are prepared to provide “legal first aid” in the event of an arrest.
Darshan-Leitner said that Shurat HaDin is in the early stages of developing a legal academy designed to teach lawyers how to use their skills to defend Israel, and to train them in the fine points of terror victim litigation, BDS litigation, fighting antisemitism, and appearing before the International Criminal Court.
Based on data from the Anti-Defamation League, Darshan-Leitner said that antisemitic incidents in the US have increased by 900% over the past decade, with a significant acceleration following the events of Oct. 7. “The volume of work is tremendous,” she stated. “We never imagined that all the international organizations that were supposed to protect and defend the democratic Western world would actually stand against it. The UN, the UN Human Rights Commission, UNRWA, the Red Cross, and the International Criminal Court. Israel today, unfortunately, is in the lowest place ever in terms of delegitimization and antisemitism.”
Darshan-Leitner, who will be speaking at the upcoming Jerusalem Post Annual Conference, which will be held in New York, said that the conference is an important platform for strategic dialogue on the central challenges facing Israel and the Jewish people at this time – from the fight against terrorism and antisemitism to the legal and diplomatic battle in the international arena.
“For us at Shurat HaDin, it is an opportunity to emphasize that alongside the war on multiple fronts, there is also a critical legal front, where determined action can and must be taken against terrorist organizations, their financiers, and their supporters.”
This article was written in cooperation with Shurat HaDin.