Al-Jazeera Sued by Victims of Lebanon War

Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based news source, is being sued for using their reporting to enable terror, and on Monday, a group of 91 Israelis filed a lawsuit against the Arab news source at the New York Federal Court.

During the 2006 Lebanon war, recognized terrorist group Hezbollah launched 4,000 rockets into Israel, according to Associated Press.

Al-Jazeera allegedly reported in real-time the precise locations of rocket strikes to Israel. These live broadcasts allowed for Hezbollah to better strike Israeli targets, the suit claims.

Al-Jazeera has not yet commented.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, titled Kaplan et al. v. Al-Jazeera, seek $1.2 billion in compensation, plus punitive damages, according to New York’s Newswire. They are being represented by Brooklyn attorney Robert J. Tolchin Esq. from New York’s Berkman Law office, as well as Israeli human rights lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.

Darshan-Leitner relayed the plaintiffs’ legal complaints to Newswire:

"Al-Jazeera allowed itself to become a crucial component of the Hezbollah missile offensive. The intent was to assist Hezbollah in targeting and killing civilians. Without the assistance of Al-Jazeera's on-the-ground spotters, Hezbollah would have been unable to accurately aim its missiles into Israeli cities. Al-Jazeera, which has offices in New York, aided and abetted Hezbollah terrorism and shares responsibility for the injuries suffered by the victims of these attacks."

Israeli military censors prohibited the media from reporting from locations of rocket strikes for the sake of military safety and censorship during the war. Israeli police detained Al-Jazeera crews several times for violating Israel’s policy on real-time reporting, though no charges were filed until now.

"By giving Hezbollah real-time targeting feedback, effectively helping the terrorists to improve the aim of its missiles, Al-Jazeera crossed the line between reporting the news and being part of the news," said Tolchin.