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SHATSKY, SHABTAI SCOTT, ET AL. V. THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC, ET AL.

On February 16, 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a pizzeria in the Karnei Shomron settlement shopping mall in northwestern Samaria, killing two 15-year-old Israelis and wounded 27 people.

The two deceased victims were Nehemia Amar and Keren Shatsky. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) assumed responsibility for the attack.

In 2002, the surviving Shatsky family filed a lawsuit for injuries under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) and the Antiterrorism Act (ATA) against the Syrian Arab Republic, the PLO, and the Palestinian Authority (PA), among others, in the Federal District Court of Columbia. In April 2005, a default judgment was granted but later vacated by the District Court.

The original lawsuit was against Syria, the PA and the PLO, but the case against Syria was severed and is proceeding under a different case number. The judge has decided that he will not move forward with the Syria case until he decides the summary judgment motion filed by the PA/PLO.

In September 2012, fact discovery was closed, and expert reports on damages were exchanged. The defendants filed a summary judgment motion in August 2013 seeking to dismiss the case on the grounds the plaintiffs lacked admissible evidence to support their claims. That motion is pending. After plaintiffs filed their summary judgment opposition, the defendants filed a motion to strike plaintiffs’ evidence on multiple grounds. That motion is pending. In addition, in February 2014, the defendants filed a motion for reconsideration of the court’s 2005 decision that it had personal jurisdiction over the defendants. The motion was based on recent Supreme Court decisions on personal jurisdiction, which defendants’ claimed constituted new authority. That motion is fully briefed and is pending. The court has set a hearing in the case for July 29, 2014.