The Foreign Ministry decided today to take no further court action against Bulgaria for shooting down an El Al passenger plane in 1956, when 58 passengers were killed through that Bulgarian action.
The decision was made in accordance with the recommendation of Shabtai Rosenne, the Foreign Ministry’s legal advisor, who headed Israel’s team of attorneys that lost its case against Bulgaria recently before the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The World Court agreed with Bulgaria’s claim that the court lacked jurisdiction in this case.
Any further action by claimants as a result of the El Al plane crash will have to be taken up through diplomatic channels, the Foreign Ministry decided. The Ministry is opposed to having any claimant press a case in the Bulgarian courts, declaring that Israel could not accept the decision of a Bulgarian court. Furthermore, the Ministry held, Bulgaria’s insistence that Israel must share the blame for the 1956 crash is invalid. Bulgaria has claimed that Israel was responsible in the crash for alleged “negligence. “
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