Jordan-based Arab Bank, one of the region’s largest and oldest, has found itself in a Federal District Court in New York in the first civil case against a bank under the US Anti-Terrorism Act.

The plaintiffs suggest that Arab Bank knowingly allowed transfers to Hamas and to the families of perpetrators of Hamas attacks in Israel, some of the victims of which were American citizens. A lower court judge has made it nearly impossible for Arab Bank to defend itself at trial, after limiting the bank’s ability to counter the claims leveled against it. (CONTINUED - 358 WORDS)