Palestinians ask US Supreme Court to halt $656m payment pending restitution case appeal
PLO, PA argue that paying hefty sum now in long-running lawsuit filed by Americans who blame them for attacks that killed their loved ones in Israel would destabilize West Bank
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WASHINGTON — Palestinian authorities asked the US Supreme Court on Thursday to halt for now a $656 million judgment in a long-running lawsuit filed by Americans killed or wounded in attacks in Israel.
The emergency appeal comes after a lower court reinstated the damages in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that followed more than two decades of litigation.
The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority said in court documents that paying the hefty judgment now would “destabilize critical government services Petitioners provide in the West Bank, injure innocent citizens, and jeopardize regional security.”
They asked the justices to pause payment as they appeal the reinstatement of the verdict. Ramallah has been warning about the impending collapse of the Palestinian economy amid mounting Israeli restrictions.
The lawsuit was filed by victims of attacks in Jerusalem in the early 2000s that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more. Families brought their lawsuit under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a law aimed at opening US courts to victims of international terror attacks.
A federal court in New York tossed the original verdict on appeal and continued to rule in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority as Congress revised the law to allow suits to go forward. In 2025, the Supreme Court sided with the families and revived the lawsuits.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to reinstate the verdict in March. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said at the time that the families were pleased and relieved by the decision, saying it would allow “justice to be done.”
They declined to comment on Thursday’s petition.
The lead plaintiff, Mark Sokolow, his wife, and two of his daughters were injured in a Jerusalem suicide bombing in 2002 that killed an 81-year-old man. His fellow plaintiffs are families of victims of terrorist attacks in Israel that killed 33, including several Americans, and wounded over 450.
Their suit argued that the late PLO chairman Yasser Arafat had paid attackers and their families, and that they had standing to sue his organization under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
In its unanimous ruling last year, the Supreme Court said that Congress and the president enacted the jurisdictional law based on their “considered judgment to subject the PLO and PA to liability in US courts as part of a comprehensive legal response to ‘halt, deter and disrupt’ acts of international terrorism that threaten the life and limb of American citizens.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.