A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by three Israeli hostages against the U.S.-based nonprofit People Media Project and its publication, the Palestine Chronicle, can proceed to trial. The plaintiffs allege that the organization knowingly employed and compensated Hamas operative Abdallah Aljamal, who held them captive following the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.
Almog Meir Jan, Shlomi Ziv, and Andrey Kozlov were abducted during Hamas’s massacre of civilians attending the Nova Music Festival and were later rescued by the Israel Defense Forces from Aljamal’s residence in Gaza. The lawsuit claims that the Palestine Chronicle provided Aljamal with a platform to disseminate Hamas propaganda and that the payments he received from the organization materially supported their prolonged captivity.
U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright rejected the defendants’ motion to dismiss, stating that the plaintiffs presented a plausible claim that the Palestine Chronicle and its officers aided and abetted their kidnapping and Hamas’s acts of terrorism. The judge noted that the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged that the defendants had actual knowledge of Aljamal’s affiliation with Hamas and his involvement in the October 7 terror attacks.
The court found that the timing and extent of Aljamal’s employment supported the inference that the payments provided assistance with substantial effect on the hostages’ captivity. Aljamal, a former Hamas spokesman, was killed during the IDF’s rescue operation. The lawsuit also highlights Aljamal’s social media activity, which included posts celebrating the October 7 attacks and images of his son wearing Hamas headbands.
Erielle Davidson, an attorney representing the former hostages, emphasized the significance of the court’s decision: “We applaud the decision of the district court and recognize it as bringing our plaintiffs one step closer to securing justice for the harms they suffered at the hands of Hamas.”
