Israel gags key witness in lawsuit over Bank of China terrorism accounts
Government bowed to pressure from Beijing over terrorist accounts, victims' families claim
The Israeli government has decided to prevent a key witness from testifying in an anti-terrorism case in the United States, drawing accusations that it is caving in to pressure from China.
The lawsuit revolves around allegations that Bank of China knowingly allowed Palestinian militants to use its accounts to finance their operations, including a suicide attack in Tel Aviv in 2006 that killed 11 people.
Families of the dead, among them 16-year-old American holidaymaker Daniel Wultz, have launched at least two cases in the United States against China's fourth largest lender. The bank denies any wrongdoing.
Plaintiffs hoped that evidence from a former Israeli intelligence officer, who allegedly told Chinese counterparts in 2005 about suspicious transactions, would prove decisive.
A Washington district court issued the official, Uzi Shaya, with a subpoena to testify on November 25. However, the Israeli government filed a petition to the court on Friday, seeking to block his appearance and to stop him revealing state secrets.
"The disclosure of such information would harm Israel's national security, compromise Israel's ability to protect those within its borders, and interfere with international co-operative efforts to prevent terrorism," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday.
Critics have accused the government of seeking to muzzle Shaya to protect growing trade ties with China.
"We understand the need for financial engagement with China, but not at the cost of abandoning these families who have had loved ones murdered by the Palestinian terror groups who, we allege, moved funds through the Bank of China," said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israeli lawyer who represents the families of 22 people killed in various Palestinian militant attacks.
The Israeli daily newspaper said last month that Netanyahu, ahead of his high-level visit to China in May, had promised not to let any civil servant, past or present, give testimony that might help the plaintiffs.
Darshan-Leitner said Shaya wants to testify and says everything he was due to discuss has already been laid out in a previous affidavit and stated publicly.
Judge Shira Scheindlin, hearing the Wultz case in the Southern District of New York, said in a hearing in July that the plaintiff's suit might collapse if Israel did not let Shaya testify.
"If the decision is 'no' ... that may be a make-or-break decision for this case," she said, according to a transcript seen by Reuters. "This may be the only person who really has the knowledge as to what transpired at the (2005) meeting."
