Alien Tort Statute Liability for American Publisher Would Turn on Whether It Knew Author It Paid Was Hamas Hostage-Holder
From Judge Tiffany Cartwright (W.D. Wash.) in Friday’s Jan v. People Media Project:
Plaintiff Almog Meir Jan is an Israeli citizen who was kidnapped on October 7 and held hostage by Hamas operative Abdallah Aljamal before being rescued by the Israel Defense Forces. Defendants are People Media Project, its individual officers Ramzy Baroud and John Harvey, and unnamed Doe Defendants 1 through 10.
Jan alleges that Defendants employed and compensated Aljamal as a journalist and provided him a U.S.-based platform to publish articles supporting Hamas. Jan asserts that through these actions, Defendants aided and abetted his kidnapping and imprisonment as well as aided and abetted terrorism in violation of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), 28 U.S.C. § 1350.
Defendants moved to dismiss …, arguing that Jan’s allegations are insufficient to state a plausible claim that Defendants aided and abetted his kidnapping and Hamas’s acts of terrorism. Defendants also assert that their decision to publish Aljamal’s articles is protected by the First Amendment, and that Jan’s claims do not overcome the ATS’s presumption against extraterritoriality because the conduct relevant to the ATS’s focus—kidnapping and imprisoning a civilian hostage—occurred outside the United States. In response, Jan argues that the ATS recognizes aiding and abetting as a cause of action, and that aiding and abetting illegal conduct is not protected speech. By compensating Aljamal and providing him a U.S.-based platform to publish articles justifying Hamas’s actions, Jan argues that Defendants materially supported terrorism. Jan asserts that this domestic conduct is the gravamen of his ATS claims and is sufficient to overcome the presumption against extraterritoriality….
The court rejected the claims based on publishing pro-Hamas propaganda, for reasons discussed in a separate post. But here’s what the court had to say about the claims based on providing funds to Hamas via Aljamal:
Based on the Ninth Circuit’s standard for ATS accomplice liability, Jan’s allegations that Defendants paid Aljamal while he held Jan captive in his home could support a claim for aiding and abetting—but only if Defendants knew they were paying a Hamas operative. Because Jan’s complaint does not allege actual knowledge, his claims based on compensating Aljamal as a journalist must be dismissed….
The following facts are those alleged in the complaint. Because the Court is considering a motion to dismiss …, Jan’s factual allegations must be taken as true and construed in the light most favorable to him.
Jan was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival and held hostage in Gaza by Abdallah Aljamal. He was held for 246 days before being rescued on June 8, 2024 by the Israel Defense Forces. Jan asserts that since May 2019, Defendant People Media Project, doing business as the Palestine Chronicle, “provided Hamas Operative Aljamal with support and a U.S.-based platform to publish Hamas propaganda under the guise of independent journalism and compensated [him] for his contributions.” Jan alleges “Hamas Operative Aljamal’s publications follow[ed] Hamas’s well-known ‘war-by-propaganda’ strategy by attempting to exploit the international community’s response to civilian casualties and blaming Israel for its reasonable response to Hamas’s atrocities on October 7.” For example, Jan asserts that the Palestine Chronicle published “a propaganda piece by Hamas Operative Aljamal calling October 7 a ‘daring attack’ and accusing Israel o
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