Supreme Court allows US victim suits against Palestinian authorities

The US Supreme Court cleared the way on Friday for American victims of attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank to sue Palestinian authorities for damages in US courts.

The court issued a unanimous 9-0 decision in a long-running case involving the jurisdiction of US federal courts to hear lawsuits against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Americans killed or injured in attacks in Israel or the West Bank or their relatives have filed a number of suits seeking damages.

In one 2015 case, a jury awarded $655 million in damages and interest to US victims of attacks which took place in the early 2000s.

Appeals courts had dismissed the suits on jurisdiction grounds.

Congress passed a law in 2019 — the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (PSJVTA) — that would make the PLO and PA subject to US jurisdiction if they were found to have made payments to the relatives of persons who killed or injured Americans.

Two lower courts ruled that the 2019 law was a violation of the due process rights of the Palestinian authorities under the US Constitution but the Supreme Court ruled on Friday to uphold it.

“The PSJVTA reasonably ties the assertion of federal jurisdiction over the PLO and PA to conduct that involves the United States and implicates sensitive foreign policy matters within the prerogative of the political branches,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

The PA announced in February that it would end its system of payments to the families of those killed by Israel or held in Israeli prisons, responding to a long-standing request from Washington.

In 2018, during his first term as US president, Donald Trump signed into law rules suspending financial assistance to the PA as long as it continued to pay benefits to Palestinians linked to “terrorist” entities, according to the criteria of the Israeli authorities.