Not long after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 Israelis and guest workers and kidnapped 250, my wife and I joined other Jewish National Fund volunteers in Israel, bearing witness to the atrocities at multiple locations, meeting survivors, tending and picking crops, painting and repairing kibbutzim so displaced residents could return, and cooking meals for soldiers.
We recently returned to Israel with Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center, and people from nine countries. We visited kibbutzim and a security checkpoint, spoke with firefighters, police, soldiers and civilians, and heard talks by former Mossad agents.
Daylong tours took us to the police station memorial in Sderot and the Syrian border overlooking areas where ISIS, Islamist Bedouins and other factions are now butchering Druze families in genocidal massacres. From Misgav Am above the Lebanon border, we saw Kiryat Shmona and a Hezbollah “village” that had housed men (no women or children), Kalashnikovs, rockets and missiles, next to a UN outpost that ignored everything the terrorists were doing.
In Magdal Shams, we visited the school where a Hezbollah rocket had murdered 12 young Druze soccer players and met survivors and families. At the Nova Music Festival massacre site, a survivor told her heartrending story of hiding in bushes and hearing other women raped, murdered and mutilated. The nearby “burnt car lot” holds 1,560 cars that Hamas incinerated, often burning passengers alive.
At Camp Shura Sgt. Bentzi Mann told us how victims were lovingly identified and prepared for burial.
The realities of the war, of decades of terror attacks, of Israelis living surrounded by countries and terrorists committed to their extermination, were even more indelibly etched in our memories.
Shurat HaDin is a unique combatant in this ongoing war against Israel’s people and existence.
Co-founder and president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, her husband Aviel Leitner and their staff of legal warriors have brought actions against Hamas and PLO leaders, the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, the International Red Cross (for refusing to help October 7 kidnap victims), UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) for aiding Hamas, the International Criminal Court, and other proponents and defenders of terrorism against Israel. They also defend Israeli soldiers against bogus war crime charges.
They defend – and they attack. Shurat HaDin attorneys and staff actively pursue terrorists, state sponsors of terror, and anyone trying to delegitimize Israel. Instead of guns, warplanes and drones, their weapons are Israeli, US, international and other laws. From freezing terrorist assets to suing foreign governments and organizations, they take the fight to the Jewish State’s enemies, in courtrooms worldwide.
IDF soldiers on vacation or at music festivals, sometimes long after their service, are being targeted and arrested on politically motivated war crimes charges in foreign cities. Shurat HaDin is often the only organization standing between men and women who risk their lives defending Israel against those who would criminalize them for doing so.
The toxic absurdity of these cases is underscored by the absence of “international community” war crime indictments, arrests or comparable outrage over Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians; Islamist butchering of Christians in Nigeria, Sudan, Congo and Syria; Hamas and Hezbollah atrocities on October 7 and decades before that; Islamist beheading and burning alive of Yazidi children; and many others.
Further underscoring the absurdity and duplicity of singling out Israel is the ways Hamas has deliberately maximized civilian casualties by using them as human shields, turning them into “martyrs,” and putting their terror tunnels, rocket launchers, sniper posts and weapons storehouses in and under almost every home, apartment building, school, hospital, shop and mosque in Gaza.
Hamas deliberately converted every foot of the Gaza Strip into a fortification – and thus into legitimate and necessary targets. For decades it targeted Israeli civilians with rockets, missiles, guns and suicide bombings. But few blame Hamas. They all blame Israel.
This what Shurat HaDin is up against, and why it sues banks, states, organizations and corporations that funnel money to Hamas, Hezbollah and other terror groups, making it harder for them to get weapons and explosives or reward their killers. The legal actions also hold terror leaders and enablers accountable.
Shurat HaDin can translate as “going above and beyond the letter of the law” to protect Jews and Israel. The Center works alongside Israeli and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies – along with a global network of volunteer lawyers and investigators – to assist victims of Jew-hatred and terrorism. It sues social media giants and other institutions that help terrorists recruit new followers and incite attacks, antisemitism, Israel bashing and campaigns to delegitimize the Jewish state.
Unlike government agencies and bureaucratic NGOs, Shurat is agile, dauntless and inspired by a sense of protective purpose. It is 100% funded by private donations, and every dollar supports its David-versus-Goliath legal battles on behalf of Israel and Jewish people everywhere.
The Law Center knows Israel could win on the battlefields against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Grand Satan of Terrorism Iran – and still lose the war in the arenas of courtrooms, the United Nations and public opinion. It is determined not to let that happen.
Shurat HaDin’s historic victories have shaped international legal norms around anti-terror law, civil liability and sovereign immunity. They’re not just symbolic; they are impactful and precedent-setting.
Unfortunately, they are also just a blessed match in a world gone insane. That match must now ignite fires of outrage and resistance to what happened on and since October 7, 2023.
Hamas promises to “repeat the October 7 attack time and again until Israel is annihilated” “from the river to the sea” make it clear that this evil will rage on until the terror groups and their genocidal ideologies are eliminated.
Following the worst massacres of Jews since the Holocaust, the historic scourge of antisemitism and Israel hatred has expanded, metastasized and become not merely accepted, but expected, admired and demanded. Jews – who have lived in what is now Israel for 3,400 years – have somehow become invaders and colonizers. They’re falsely accused of starving Gaza children.
Jewish scholars, musicians and athletes are increasingly banned from associations, conferences and events. Jewish businesses are defaced and vandalized. Israelis trying to enjoy a meal are kicked out of European restaurants. French Jewish children are kicked off a Spanish jetliner for singing in Hebrew.
Jews are gunned down on a Washington, DC street and burned to death in a Boulder, Colorado park.
Instead of being condemned, the perpetrators are praised by “Globalize the Intifada” Jew haters.
Emmanuel Macron (France) and Keir Starmer (Britain) intend to recognize a “State of Palestine” that doesn’t exist. Their plan may placate assimilation-rejecting Muslim immigrants. But it will also reward and embolden Hamas and Hezbollah, fuel more antisemitism, and prolong the war, destruction and death.
Israel and the world Jewish community have not faced such threats since the Nazis’ “Final Solution.” So Shurat HaDin and its allies will continue battling terrorists and their accomplices with truth, resolve and laws – to defend Israel and humanity.
Paul Driessen has been to Israel multiple times and seen its archeological treasures, modern innovations, amazing multi-ethnic people and recent tragedies firsthand. He is the author of articles on energy, environmental, human rights and Israel issues.