Finance Ministry: US Court Dismissed $900m Appeal Against PLO, PA

The Ministry said the lawyers of the PLO and PA achieved another legal breakthrough. WAFA
The Ministry said the lawyers of the PLO and PA achieved another legal breakthrough. WAFA
TT

Finance Ministry: US Court Dismissed $900m Appeal Against PLO, PA

The Ministry said the lawyers of the PLO and PA achieved another legal breakthrough. WAFA
The Ministry said the lawyers of the PLO and PA achieved another legal breakthrough. WAFA

The Palestinian Ministry of Finance said a US court has dismissed an appeal worth $900 million that had been submitted against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) at US courts, Palestine News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported Sunday.

The Ministry said the lawyers of the PLO and PA achieved another legal breakthrough after the Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed Schlotzsky's lawsuit filed against Palestine in 2002 on charges of "supporting terrorism".

It said the court found that the recent Congressional decision that subjects the PLO and the PA to the jurisdiction of the US law was unconstitutional.

“The US court ruling was issued despite repeated attempts by the plaintiffs and right-wing organizations supporting them to file cases against Palestine for financial compensation worth millions of dollars,” WAFA quoted the Ministry as saying in a statement.

These plaintiffs and right-wing organizations "had previously even pressed the Congress to change US law and to obtain legal support for the US administration.”

Finance Minister Shukri Bishara hailed the achievement and thanked President Mahmoud Abbas for his direct involvement in the case.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.