A federal judge in Seattle has dismissed a lawsuit by a rescued Israeli hostage alleging that a nonprofit media company was liable for hiring his captor to write articles supporting the Hamas terrorist group.
In her decision on Jan. 31, U.S. District Judge Tiffany Cartwright found that Almog Meir Jan didn’t provide enough evidence that the company knew its employee was a Hamas operative involved in human rights violations.The judge allowed Jan to refile the suit with additional evidence and amended claims.
Jan, a citizen of Israel, was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Nearly 400 music festival attendees were killed in the massacre.
A month after regaining freedom, Jan sued the People Media Project, the parent company of the Chronicle, over the role the pro-Palestinian publication allegedly played in Hamas’s atrocities. The Chronicle is based in Mountlake Terrace, a suburb to the north of Seattle.
Filed under the Alien Tort Statute, a Founding-era law allowing foreign nationals to sue in federal courts for violations of customary international law, Jan’s suit argued that People Media Project’s manager and the Chronicle’s editor-in-chief should be held liable for giving Aljamal a platform to “write and disseminate Hamas propaganda” while benefiting from tax-exempt status.
“By providing this platform to ... and compensating [Aljamal] for his propaganda, Defendants aided, abetted and materially supported both [Aljamal] and Hamas itself in their acts of terrorism, including kidnapping and holding Plaintiff hostage for 246 days, in violation of international law,” the complaint reads.
However, the judge ruled that Jan’s claims failed to meet the legal standard for aiding and abetting, as he did not demonstrate that the Chronicle had “actual knowledge” about Aljamal’s ties to Hamas.Cartwright emphasized that requiring actual knowledge was crucial; otherwise, any organization operating in conflict zones could face Alien Tort Statute liability if locals they hired for legitimate tasks, such as reporting news or distributing aid, later used their earnings to commit human rights violations.
The judge further ruled that the articles in question were protected under the First Amendment.“These articles do not cross the line from protected speech to inciting or preparing for unlawful activity,” she wrote. “Nothing in the complaint alleges that defendants advocated for, incited, or planned specific human rights violations.”
Jan was given until Feb. 21 to amend his complaint in order to continue the litigation.
Jan is not the only Oct. 7 victim seeking compensation in a U.S. federal court. In June 2024, dozens of Israelis filed a $1 billion lawsuit in New York against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, accusing it of helping Hamas build the “terror infrastructure” necessary for the attack.
