Shurat HaDin—Israel Law Center
Shurat HaDin—Israel Law Center (ILC) is an Israeli-based civil rights organization.[1]
The Center was founded in 2003.[1]
Intelligence links
The Center's website claims that it 'works together with western intelligence agencies'.[1]
A leaked cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv, records the following conversation with the center's director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, regarding its links to Israeli intelligence:
- Leitner said that in many of her cases she receives evidence from GOI officials, and added that in its early years ILC took direction from the GOI on which cases to pursue. "The National Security Council (NSC) legal office saw the use of civil courts as a way to do things that they are not authorized to do," claimed Leitner. Among her contacts, Leitner listed Udi Levy at the NSC and Uzi Beshaya at the Mossad, both key Embassy contacts on anti-terrorist finance cooperation. Leitner offered a case against Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as example of ILC's close cooperation with the GOI. After obtaining a judgment against PIJ for NIS 100 million (USD 25 million), ILC requested a lien for that amount against the Abu Akker Trading Company as a third party defendant. At the time, Abu Akker was one of the largest Palestinian importing companies, and Leitner said the Mossad provided her with the intelligence (similar to information provided to USG officials in a classified briefing) to prove that the company was funneling money to PIJ. According to Leitner, the ILC now decides its cases independently, but continues to receive evidence and witnesses from Israeli intelligence.[2]
