Court Orders PLO and Palestinian Authority Must Pay $656 Million to American Terror Victims

The Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is reinstating a $655.5 million judgment against the Palestinian Authority after a unanimous June 2025 Supreme Court decision that American courts do have jurisdiction to hear international terrorism claims.The precedent-setting case orders the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority to pay damages to victims of terrorism from the Second Intifada.Ten families of terror victims filed Sokolow v. the Palestinian Authority in 2004. Among the plaintiffs were families who lost their children in the bombing of the Hebrew University cafeteria; the family of a man killed in the bus No. 19 bombing in Jerusalem; and families of victims who were injured in various attacks on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem.A federal jury, in 2015, found the Palestinian Authority and the PLO liable for the attacks and awarded damages. The PA appealed the ruling on the grounds of lack of personal jurisdiction, and the Court of Appeals accepted the argument.After that reversal, Congress passed the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act that stated that payments linked to terrorist activity connected to the United States may fall under the jurisdiction of American courts.Miriam Fuld, whose husband Ari Fuld was killed in a 2018 stabbing attack outside a mall in the West Bank, later filed suit and joined the Sokolow suit. The second case, Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, led to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling upholding that jurisdiction does exist. Central to the ruling was the Palestinian Authority’s policy of making payments to individuals involved in attacks against American citizens — dubbed “pay for slay” by critics.The family of Fuld’s murderer reportedly received a monthly salary of 1,400 shekels, worth about $450, for three years following the attack. In the year of Fuld’s slaying, the PA reportedly budgeted 1.2 billion shekels, worth about $382,000, to fund the program. The appeals court, last week, vacated its prior dismissal and reinstated the 2015 judgment after ruling that the law applies retroactively.“This is a ruling that marks a historic turning point in the fight against terrorism,” the lawyer for the victims, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, said in a statement. “Not only does it restore the ability of American victims of terrorism to obtain compensation after years of struggle, it also changes the rules of the game: from now on, U.S. courts will be able to hear cases that previously could not even be brought before them.”“This is a day of great victory in our determined fight to cut off the financial lifelines of terrorist organizations,” Ms. Darshan-Leitner went on to say.“I never imagined that the road to justice would be so long and winding,” said a plaintiff in the case, Dr. Alan Bauer, who was severely injured with his son in a 2002 attack in Jerusalem. “But we refused to give up. We promised ourselves we would see this case through to the very end. We were determined to hold accountable those who carried out acts of terror against us and to finally make them answer for their guilt and their crimes.”American courts have no way to force the PA to pay but the activist law group Shurat HaDin plans to seek to have the ruling recognized in Israel under existing treaties between Jerusalem and Washington, the Jerusalem Post reports. If they are successful, the Israeli court system will be able to order the payments.

Court Orders PLO and Palestinian Authority Must Pay $656 Million to American Terror Victims

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