Published: 05/23/11, 6:44 PM / Last Update: 05/23/11, 7:07 PM
Maritime Lawfare Victory: Lloyd's Won't Insure Gaza Flotilla
by Gil Ronen
Leading insurance market Lloyd's of London has stated it will not insure
boats headed toward Gaza in another flotilla designed to assist the Hamas
government there.
The assurance was made in a letter to Attorney Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, who
heads the Shurat HaDin organization, after the organization sent out letters
to numerous insurance companies threatening to sue them if they insure the
next Gaza flotilla <http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143425>
.
The letter from Lloyd's states as follows:
Dear Mrs Darshan-Leitner,
Thank you for your letter dated 15 May 2011 in relation to the Gaza Naval
Expedition.
As you correctly point out in your letter, Hamas is subject to UK and EU
terrorist financing sanctions. As such any vessel identified as being owned
or controlled by that organisation would not be permitted to be insured by
underwriters at Lloyd's, or any other EU insurer.
The Lloyd's Market has robust systems in place to ensure international
sanctions are followed and therefore any underwriter identifying an insured
or prospective insured acting on behalf of, or for the benefit of Hamas,
would not insure such a risk.
Whilst I understand that your letter has also been sent to all major
maritime insurers, should you have any specific concerns or examples of
underwriters at Lloyd's not complying with such international sanctions, I
would ask to hear from you as a matter of urgency.
Yours sincerely,
Andy Wragg
Senior Manager
Lloyd's International Regulatory Affairs
Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center is a civil rights organization dedicated to
combating terrorist organizations and the regimes that support them through
lawsuits litigated in courtrooms around the world.
The group has explained that "instead of sitting passively by and waiting
for another international diplomatic crisis to play out into the Islamic
extremists' hands," it has embarked on a campaign to try and legally block
the extremists from setting sail.
The idea is succinctly expressed on the group's website:
Every boat that travels from any country's seaports or marinas needs to have
maritime insurance. Without insurance a ship is not permitted to set sail.
Yet, the maritime insurance companies insuring the boats utilized by the
Gaza Flotilla surely have no idea that the passenger boats that they are
indemnifying are being used by the organizers to run the coastal blockade,
violently challenge the IDF and smuggle weapons into Gaza. No legitimate
insurance company nor its shareholders would reasonably agree to insure an
expedition like that.
As such, we have begun to send letters placing the maritime insurance
companies on notice concerning the Gaza Flotilla and warning them that if
they provide insurance (a necessary component in the effort to smuggle
contraband to the terrorists) that they themselves will be legally liable
for any future terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas. The letters are being
sent to all the maritime insurance firms in Europe and Turkey.
We are cautioning them that if they knowingly insure one of the Flotilla
boats providing material resources to Hamas, they will also be indemnifying
the Hamas rocket crews for all future Qassam missile attacks as the terror
victims will surely sue them! We are hoping that when their legal
departments review our letters and inform the corporation's officials of the
potential massive liability being risked they will act to ensure that none
of their ships are being utilized by the terrorists.
"The government and the IDF are extremely adept at adapting to new military
threats and battlefield suprises," the group says. "They do not seem to be
able to get a handle on the new way the delegitimization game is being
played globally." For that reason, it has decided to act on its own -- and
has scored a success.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Brooks Isoldi, editor
[email protected]
http://www.intellnet.org
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