Board of Deputies concedes defeat to Interpal

Interpal has won its libel action against the Board of Deputies over the latter calling the former a "terrorist organisation." Here's Interpal's comment on the case:

The trustees of Interpal, the UK-registered Palestinian relief charity, have today (22/12/2005) concluded a successful out-of-court settlement of libel proceedings brought against the Board of Deputies of British Jews over allegations published on the Board's website in September 2003....

.....the Board thereafter spent over two years attempting to defend that description...

The precise terms of the settlement are to remain confidential at the insistence of the Board of Deputies.

Part of the deal is that the Board of Deputies has to carry the following apology on its home page for 28 days starting from yesterday.

The Board of Deputies and the UK-registered charity Interpal announce that they have reached an out-of-court settlement of libel proceedings relating to an item published by the Board on this website in September 2003. In the item, we referred to "terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Interpal". We would like to make it clear that we should not have described Interpal in this way and we regret the upset and distress our item caused.

The case would have been heard by Judge Eady with a jury. Judge Eady presided over the Galloway v Telegraph Group case.