The U.S. Supreme Court should allow American victims of Palestinian terrorists and their families to sue for damages in U.S. courts, a brief filed today by American Jewish Committee (AJC) and 13 other Jewish organizations argues.

AJC and the other Jewish organizations say in their brief in Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Palestinian Authority (PA) “have been leaders in the planning, funding, and rewarding of terrorism against Jews” through a so-called martyrs’ fund, which has become known as a “pay-for-slay” program.

The program compensates the families of imprisoned Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers. Among those eligible are those who participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel, the Jewish groups wrote.

“The more deadly the attack and the longer the terrorist spends in prison, the greater the stipends. Terrorists released from prison are rewarded free health care, cushy jobs, and other lifetime benefits,” according to the brief.

Victims and the families of U.S. citizens slain by Palestinian terrorists have been repeatedly thwarted when they tried to sue the PLO and PA by courts that ruled those groups were outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. justice system.

The named petitioner in the case is the family of Ari Fuld, an American fatally stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist outside a West Bank shopping mall in 2018.

Congress in 2019 passed the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act. It allowed victims of terror attacks outside the U.S. to sue if groups like the PLO and PA make payments from the pay-for-slay program or engage in certain activities such as maintaining a U.S. office or sponsoring college lectures promoting their cause.

The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit last year ruled the law violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment because the PLO and PA had insufficient ties to the U.S. to subject them to the jurisdiction of American courts. AJC Chief Legal Officer Marc Stern said the court interpreted the law too narrowly. 

“American citizenship has many benefits. One of them is the obligation of the government to protect its citizens when they are abroad,” Stern said. “Our brief argues that there is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits Congress from allowing American victims of terror abroad to sue their attackers in U.S. courts.”

The Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case in December, combined this case with a separate suit filed by the federal government against the PLO. No date has been set for arguments. A decision is expected by July.

The brief was prepared by the law firms Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak in Washington and Haynes and Boone in New York.

AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people. With headquarters in New York, 25 regional offices across the United States, 15 overseas posts, as well as partnerships with 38 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC’s mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. For more, please visit www.ajc.org.

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