Notes

Israel group fights over claims of the Shirat Hadin

A legal activist group based in Israel is calling on Australian survivors, as well as their families to join its class action against insurance firms whose Holocaust predecessors from the past failed to in their obligations to pay for policies owned by displaced and murdered European Jews.

Nitsana Dahan-Leitner (Israeli attorney, human-rights advocate), founded Shurat HaDin Israel Law Centre. AJN stated that Project Last Chance will pursue insurance companies that made use of World War II chaos and the Shoah as a way to avoid paying compensation to victims, survivors and their heirs.

"My goal currently is to make sure that the victims get some sort of compensation when the case is over. Shurat Hadin is due to survivors. It's their money. You can insure your possessions, such as your home or your life, but nobody can take it from you.

Darshan-Leitner said US Senate estimates indicate up to $US200 billion in payments were obliterated from Jewish policyholders due to delinquent WWII insurance companies, with a lot of identifiable successor entities in the current marketplace which have inherited the liabilities.

Shurat HaDin will use its experience to pursue banks and financial institutions, like banks that harbour terrorist assets.

"We have brought legal action against banks and countries against those who aid or aid in the spread of terrorists. Israel Law Center have the knowledge and we are not afraid of taking on governments as large corporations or international banks," she said.

Shurat haDin also has launched legal proceedings in Israel to gain access to a database of around 140,000 Holocaust survivors and their descendants. This database is part Israel's Project Heart. https://www.trackometrix.com/auto-draft-110/ includes approximately 2 million assets. The Israeli government and the Jewish Agency for Israel jointly invited applicants into the restitution programs. However, the scheme was abruptly ended, leaving participants in limbo.

Shurat HaDin has reached out to the government however, they have not replied. The Labour and Social Services Ministry in Israel stated that Project Heart was not intended to be an individual claims scheme. Thus, the information about claimants' identities cannot be disclosed. Shurat Hadin suggests Israel underestimated European governments' reluctance when confronted with the list that included hundreds of thousands of claimants.

If their identities are released to Shurat HaDin Shurat HaDin, the Project Heart participants could become participants in the class actions that were launched under Project Last Chance, Darshan-Leitner explained.

Project Last Chance, she said, is taking an approach that is different from the Claims Conference, founded in 1951. It has petitioned government to obtain Holocaust compensation, but not targeted companies or firms directly.


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