Palestinian villagers lose Montreal firms appeal
3-judge Quebec panel says lawsuit must be resolved in Israel
Last Updated: Thursday, August 12, 2010 | 11:56 AM ET
CBC News
Related
External Links
(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in new window)
Quebec's Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that Palestinian villagers trying to sue two Montreal companies operating on the West Bank need to go through Israel's legal system.
The West Bank village of Bil'in is disputing the companies' condominium development, alleging they violated international law by building Israeli settlements on occupied territory.
The claim was filed against sister companies Green Park International and Green Mount International, which built on land that was part of a Palestinian village until Israel took the West Bank from Jordanian control in the Six Day War in 1967.
Bil'in's city council and other residents filed the lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court, trying to get the case heard in the province.
The heart of the lawsuit was the claim that Israel would not hear the case because it has not ratified the Geneva Convention ban on settlement expansion in occupied territories.
The case went to trial and the villagers lost, but they turned to the Court of Appeal.
A three-judge panel decided Wednesday that Israel is the right jurisdiction to resolve the lawsuit.
Quebec's highest court said lawyers for Bil'in never presented evidence proving Israel's courts were unwilling or unable to deal with the issue.
The ruling added that it requires a great deal of imagination to claim Bil'in's case has a serious connection to Quebec.
Share Tools
Latest Montreal News Headlines
- Advice follows drowning death of baby
- A one-year-old boy from Laval has died after he was left unattended in the bath. more »
- Cuts hurt Montreal's Greek consulate
- Montreal's Greek consulate has already felt the impact of the Greek government's austerity measures, but many in the city's 80 thousand-strong Greek community are more angry at the rioters in their homeland than they are about the cuts. more »
- Accused in Quebec triple murder appears in court
- A Quebec judge has ordered a 35-year-old man accused of killing his mother and two nieces in Saint-Romain, Que., to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. more »
- Laval pushes ahead with arena plans
- The city of Laval is going ahead with plans to build a $120-million sports complex more »
Top News Headlines
- Whitney Houston's body headed home to New Jersey
- Whitney Houston's body was flown out of Los Angeles, and headed to New Jersey, where her family was making arrangements for a funeral at the end of the week. more »
- Mandatory gun sentence struck down by Ontario judge
- An Ontario Superior Court judge has struck down a mandatory minimum sentence for a first offence of possessing a loaded firearm. more »
- Online surveillance critics siding with child porn: Toews
- Critics of a bill that would give law enforcement new powers to access Canadians' electronic communications are aligning themselves with child pornographers, Canada's public safety minister says. more »
- Low vitamin D in womb tied to poor language skills
- Children born to women who had low levels of vitamin D during their pregnancy are more likely to have language problems, a new study suggests. more »
Most Viewed/Commented
- Quebec town 'heartbroken' after killing of woman, sisters
- Laval baby dies while unattended in tub
- Accused in Quebec triple murder appears in court
- Magdalen Islands storm aid keeps P.E.I. port busy
- Woman, 34, killed in Montreal
- Woman guilty in Quebec farmer's gruesome murder
- 5 places where babies have been banned
- Student occupation at McGill ends peacefully
- Ex-Bloc leader's testimony raises more questions
