Recent events have given Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president and founder of the Shurat HaDin Law Center, new opportunities to lead her organization’s legal offensive against Israel’s enemies on multiple fronts. Recently, Darshan-Leitner paused from her busy workday to summarize Shurat HaDin’s activities in this sphere over the past year.
The first case we discuss involves the filing of a 20 million NIS lawsuit in the Jerusalem District Court in August 2025, against the former International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, on behalf of the Oct. 7 victims. Darshan-Leitner explains that Khan visited Israel in early December 2023, as part of a private initiative organized by the survivors and families of the victims and hostages.
The country was still in the midst of an emergency state brought on by the Hamas terrorist attacks, and government officials had no interest in cooperating with any ICC investigation. After his private visit, says Darshan-Leitner, rather than helping the hostages, Khan rushed to file applications for arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant, alleging war crimes in Gaza. “In our complaint, we claimed that the sexual harassment allegation of which Khan was accused pushed him to issue the applications against the prime minister and defense minister to deflect attention from the sexual misconduct charges against him,” she explains.
She notes that the court complaint also stated that Khan had asked the Israeli government for materials to help file charges against Hamas. “He didn’t need any evidence to prosecute Hamas, or to investigate Hamas, or to issue arrest warrants against Hamas. They [the Hamas terrorists] all used GoPro cameras, and it was all documented by the terrorists on tape.”
Darshan-Leitner says that Khan also issued symbolic warrants against the Hamas leaders, just to “even the picture” when he had gone after Netanyahu and Gallant. Finally, she adds, the subjects of the Hamas warrants – Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif – were already hiding in the tunnels at that time, and would not have been affected by any arrest warrants. It was really just a meaningless gesture. Instead, she says, Khan and the ICC should have issued warrants against Hamas leaders Khaled Mashal and Ismaeil Haniyeh, who were living in Qatar. “Once they had gone after them, Hamas would have immediately taken action to release the hostages.”
A second initiative that Darshan-Leitner mentions is the “Shachpatz” (Hebrew for “flak jacket”) app, which provides legal protection to IDF soldiers and reservists facing harassment or prosecution abroad. “There is an increasing threat escalating against IDF soldiers by pro-Palestine organizations that are chasing IDF soldiers, veterans, and reservists around the world, monitoring social media, tracking them down where they go, and filing complaints against them in the countries that they are going to,” she shares.
Shachpatz, available both for Android and iPhone, is designed to protect soldiers – including both active-duty personnel and reservists – while traveling outside Israel, and offers essential tools to safeguard their personal safety and security. The app includes guidelines for conduct before traveling abroad, advice on what to avoid posting on social media, information on how to respond to questioning, and instructions for handling situations involving interrogation, detention, or arrest by local authorities.
In addition, the app provides full contact details – including direct phone numbers and email addresses – for all Israeli embassies and consulates worldwide, enabling users to make immediate contact in emergencies. Shachpatz enables users to receive information and alerts from other users about developments in various countries, to warn traveling reservists about anticipated risks and threats. Behind the Shachpatz app stands Shurat HaDin’s legal assistance command center, staffed by more than 600 lawyers from 17 countries, who are prepared to provide “legal first aid” in the event of an arrest.
Darshan-Leitner points out that Shurat HaDin is going on the offensive against organizations that have threatened to detain IDF soldiers abroad, and has asked the US Department of Justice to investigate the funding of two organizations that are known for their activity in this area – the Hind Rajab Foundation and the International Center of Justice for Palestinians. “It starts with Israeli soldiers,” she says, “Very soon, however, it will target American soldiers. Israel and the United States are fighting hand in hand in Iran, and the same allegations will be leveled against American servicepersons. We are going on the offensive against anybody who’s assisting this organization.”
She cites a case that took place in the UK, in which a pro-Palestinian organization issued a criminal complaint against an IDF soldier with dual UK-Israeli citizenship for joining the war after Israel was attacked on Oct. 7. The organization claimed the individual violated a British law that prohibits British citizens from joining an army in a war against a country with which England is not at war.
A formidable team of UK lawyers defended the case. However, an Israeli lawyer testified for the prosecution and opined that the individual had performed his military service voluntarily. Darshan-Leitner explained that this was inaccurate – the Israeli law (Tzav 8) effectively required the soldier to appear. Moreover, she says, “The mere fact that the attorney filed an opinion to indict the IDF soldier, knowing that might put him behind bars just for serving in the IDF at the time of a war, was sufficient for us to bring a complaint against her with the Israel Bar Association, to deter anyone from helping people to indict IDF soldiers from now on.”
Next, Darshan-Leitner turns to the case filed by Shurat HaDin in US Federal Court in Virginia against Al Jazeera, which alleges that the news organization is a propaganda arm that aids and encourages terrorism. Al Jazeera filed a motion to dismiss, claiming that it is protected by freedom of expression. Explains Darshan-Leitner: “We didn’t accuse Al Jazeera of saying something against Israel, because that is protected by freedom of expression.
Instead, we allege that Al Jazeera gave material support to a designated terrorist organization, because they paid money to terrorists to provide them with interviews. They paid money to Gaza terrorists to become freelancers. They employed terrorists. “By providing resources to a designated terrorist organization, Al Jazeera violated the US Anti-Terrorism Act. Therefore, American citizens who were killed during this time by Hamas can bring a legal action against Al Jazeera, which aided and abetted the terror group. There’s no freedom of expression when it comes to terrorism.”
Darshan-Leitner chuckles as she discusses Shurat HaDin’s environmental complaint against Greta Thunberg, the noted climate activist who has advocated for the Palestinians. In August 2025, dozens of vessels carrying goods to Gaza sailed from Barcelona toward Gaza. The Israeli Navy intercepted the ships, preventing them from breaching the Gaza naval blockade. “Shortly before the navy stopped the flotilla, the participants threw their cellphones into the ocean to avoid having them seized by the Israelis,” she notes. “Greta is known as an environmental activist, and their action violated regulations in Spain and England to keep the ocean clean and prevent maritime pollution. We filed a complaint with the Spanish authorities and the British authorities against Greta. We claimed she was polluting the sea. Since then, Greta has not participated in any further flotillas.”
Switching to a weightier issue, Darshan-Leitner discusses a ruling this past April issued by the federal Court of Appeals in New York, reinstating a 2015 judgment in the case of Sokolow vs the Palestinian Authority, ordering the defendants, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, to pay $655 million in damages to victims of terrorism from the period of the Second Intifada.
The original lawsuit was filed by 10 families of terror victims injured during the Second Intifada. In 2015, after a seven-week-long Manhattan trial, a federal jury found the Palestinian Authority and the PLO liable for terrorist attacks and awarded the victims $655 million in damages. However, an appeals court later overturned the ruling, finding insufficient connection and contacts between the Palestinian Authority and the United States, and saying the lower court lacked jurisdiction.
For the next decade, the victims and their attorneys – Kent Yalowitz, Mordechai Haller, and Darshan-Leitner – fought the case all the way to the US Supreme Court. In 2019, Congress passed the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, expanding US jurisdiction over foreign entities tied to terrorism.
In May 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that the Palestinian Authority’s “Pay-for-Slay” payments to imprisoned terrorists and families of suicide bombers established sufficient grounds for US jurisdiction. The appeals court subsequently fully reinstated the original 2015 judgment, citing the lengthy legal battle and Congress’s strong interest in combating terrorism.
Rather than ordering a retrial, the court held that the law applied retroactively and reinstated the original 2015 judgment. Darshan-Leitner is confident the families will be able to collect the judgment awards. “They have a judgment that is enforceable in the United States and in Israel. We will be bringing the case here and going after Palestinian Authorities’ assets in Israel, as well as in other places globally. After so many years of litigation, the PA will have to pay every penny of this judgment.”
One unusual lawsuit that Shurat HaDin brought during the war was an NIS 80 million lawsuit on behalf of Druze victims of the Hezbollah rocket attack in July 2024, in which 12 children and teenagers in the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams were murdered on a soccer field. The suit seeks punitive damages under emergency legislation enacted during the ongoing conflict, citing the use of an Iranian-made rocket with a 53-kg. warhead deliberately aimed at a civilian soccer field. “Once we receive a judgment, we’re going to go after their fiscal assets in the United States. They are using cryptocurrency companies that are active in the United States to evade American sanctions, and we’re going to collect the judgment against these unscrupulous businesses.”
Finally, she discusses the complaint filed with the International Criminal Court in The Hague against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, alleging that Spain assisted the Iranian regime by transferring dual-use explosive-related components during 2024–2025, valued at €1.3 million. Shurat HaDin charges that Spain, which has repeatedly criticized Israel and restricted US access to American bases in Andalusia during the US-Israel war with Iran, has itself supplied components required by the Iranian regime for military purposes, thereby aiding war crimes and crimes against humanity. “We’re going to continue our fight on three fronts,” summarizes Darshan-Leitner. “One is the terror financing. We’ll try to separate Hezbollah and Hamas from their money and their assets. “Israel put Hamas in a very good strategic position, where it’s under siege and on its heels. No money can come in, and no money can go out. This is a great opportunity to choke off their funding, too. “The second front is the fight over the narrative. Unfortunately, Israel is losing this war badly. This is part of our lawsuits against Al Jazeera for echoing Hamas’s narrative.
Our lawsuit against Students for Justice in Palestine is also in the process. We will go after everyone who is assisting Hamas in spreading their narrative and spreading lies against the Jewish state. “The last front is the war crime allegations and blood libels against IDF soldiers, which is an increasingly dangerous tactic that we are also trying to fight, and to protect and defend those who are defending us. Our enemies have a strategy to label all IDF service as unethical and illegal. We have an increased obligation to do anything we can for people who risk their lives to protect us. “Those who are trying to hunt IDF reservists should know they themselves will be legally hunted worldwide.”
This article was written in cooperation with Shurat HaDin.