Last week the United States Court of Appeals, sitting in New York – one level below the U.S. Supreme Court – restored a 2015 judgment against the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA). It was a landmark moment for accountability that unfortunately didn’t draw the attention it warranted.
American families devastated by the PA’s campaign of terror during the Second Intifada achieved a historic victory in 2015 when a federal jury in Manhattan – in the case of Sokolow v. PA – found the PA and the PLO explicitly liable for a series of bombings and shootings that killed and maimed American citizens, awarding the victims $655.5 million. However, an appellate court subsequently vacated the verdict on a very questionable narrow jurisdictional technicality.
In the original overturning of the Sokolow verdict, the appellate court did not exonerate the PA; it did not dispute the overwhelming mountain of evidence proving that the PA and PLO kept terrorists on their payroll, provided them with weapons, and actively incentivized the slaughter of innocent civilians. Instead, the court ruled that the PA lacked “sufficient ties” to the United States to be sued in U.S. federal court.
It was a grotesque “loophole” that allowed a foreign entity to maintain lobbying offices in Washington, accept American taxpayer dollars, and concurrently sponsor the murder of American citizens abroad with legal impunity. Congress passed legislation clarifying that the “loophole” didn’t exist and only resulted from a misreading of the original language of the anti-terrorism laws – and this led to last week’s reinstatement.
The significance of the reinstatement extends far beyond the monetary damages. For years, the international diplomatic establishment has desperately tried to prop up the PA as a moderate, reliable partner for peace, turning a blind eye to its ongoing radicalization and financial sponsorship of terrorism.
The Sokolow reinstatement upends that illusion. It legally brands the PA exactly for what it is: an institutional sponsor of terrorism that uses its budget to reward mass murder. It forces the international community to confront the reality that funding the PA is functionally subsidizing a terrorist enterprise.
The survival of the Sokolow verdict to this point sends an unmistakable message to the Palestinian Authority and any other foreign entity considering shedding American blood: you can try to hide behind international borders, you can try to exploit jurisdictional loopholes, and you can try to delay the process, but the American justice system will eventually find you, and it will make you pay.