Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, founder and president of Shurat HaDin, will be among the distinguished speakers at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York, on September 12.
Shurat Hadin is a Tel-Aviv based civil rights group that conducts a legal-economic struggle against terrorist organizations and countries that oppose the existence of the State of Israel. The group utilizes lawsuits and legal actions in courts in Israel and around the world, including international tribunals, against terrorist entities and regimes that finance terrorism or those through which terrorist funds are transferred. Additionally, they target countries that call for the delegitimization of the Jewish people and the Jewish state and those who promotes academic and financial boycotts against it.
The founder of the organization and its head, attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, was the "legal execution arm of the Mossad", which worked in cooperation with the legendary Israeli spymaster Meir Dagan, who founded a secret unit in the Mossad called "Harpoon", to fight terrorist financing.
As part of its activity in Shurat Hadin, Darshan-Leitner embarked on transcontinental wars against the largest financial institutions in the world: American, European, Islamic, Chinese and Lebanese banks. The legal battles took place in the federal courts in New York against batteries of lawyers from the most prestigious and connected offices in the USA. Some of these battles ended in billions of dollars in awards and settlements, some of which she still manages to this day.
The panel at the Jerusalem Post conference, in which Darshan-Leitner will participate is called “The Price of Terror”. Also at the panel will be Stuart Force, Father of the late Taylor Force. Taylor was an American student and West Point graduate who was murdered in 2016 by a Palestinian terrorist while he was visiting Israel. It is in his name that the famous American legislation, the Taylor Force Act was enacted, and it aims to offset the funds that the Palestinian Authority transfers to terrorists from American foreign aid grants.
"You can't fight terrorism if you don't dry up the financial swamp," says Darshan-Leitner, "Our goal is to stop the flow of funds by means of a choke hold on the oxygen pipes through which they are transferred. We file lawsuits to seize assets, and stop money transfers to terrorist organizations with the goal of financially collapsing them”.
Darshan-Leitner emphasizes that her organization also represents lawsuits against countries that support terrorism such as Iran, Syria and North Korea alongside civil actions against extremist groups and businesses: "The idea is to relentlessly fight terrorism in the economic arena which provides the fuel for the hate and violence and stop it at its source.”
The Conference, celebrating the Post’s 90th anniversary, will feature dynamic statesmen, business leaders, entrepreneurs and philanthropists, influential cultural figures and opinion leaders from around the world.