On April 16, 2009, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the lawfare case against Avi Dichter, former Director of Israel’s General Security Service, initiated by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR).  The case sought civil liability against Dichter for his alleged involvement in the planning of the 2002 IDF airstrike killing Salah Shehadah, founder of Hamas’ military wing and responsible for the murder and wounding of hundreds of Israeli civilians. The case was filed in December 2005 and had been dismissed by a lower court in May 2007.  PCHR has attempted to litigate this case in many courts throughout the world including the US, the UK, New Zealand, and Spain.  CCR is funded by the Ford Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Institute.  PCHR is funded by the European Union, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Holland, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and Christian Aid.

In 2006, the European Commission awarded PCHR and Oxfam Novib a three-year, €349,000 grant which, as NGO Monitor research has shown, is used to promote anti-Israel lawfare.  One of the central goals of the program is to “[c]ontribute to the abolition of the death penalty in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, applied by . . . the Israeli military via extrajudicial executions.”

For more on PCHR’s involvement with anti-Israel lawfare, see: