[News] 'Collective punishment': US Supreme Court greenlights $656m judgement against Palestinian officials

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/collective-punishment-us-supreme-court-greenlights-656m-judgement-against-palestinians>
'Collective punishment': US Supreme Court greenlights $656m judgement
against Palestinian officials
MEE staff
August 5, 2026
------------------------------

[image: image.png] A A young Palestinian man walks past destroyed cars,
burned by Israeli settlers overnight, in Jalud, near Nablus, in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank on 4 August 2026 (Mohammed Torokman/Reuters)

The US <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/us> Supreme Court has
refused to freeze a $656m judgement against the Palestinian Authority (PA)
and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) after the two groups said
they were too cash-strapped to compensate Americans for attacks in Israel
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> during the Second Intifada.

The decision was announced on Monday by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal
justice who is tasked with taking on emergency case reviews.

This comes 22 years after the lawsuit was first launched, and it means the
collection of the funds can begin immediately.

In 2015, the plaintiffs, who said they were victims of attacks between 2002
and 2004, won the damages.

Then in 2016, the US Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out the judgment on
the grounds that US courts cannot consider lawsuits against foreign groups
if the violence was not aimed at American citizens.

Last year, the supreme court revived the case by voting 9-0 to uphold the
Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act passed by
lawmakers.

By March of this year, the US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the
judgment.

"Congress passed special laws to make the Palestinian Authority submit to
US jurisdiction against its will if it continued to provide families of
martyred Palestinians with salaries," Raed Jarrar, advocacy director with
Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), told Middle East Eye.

The PA, he added, was "forced into accepting US jurisdiction [and it's]
really unprecedented".

The PA and PLO have said that a $656m payout would destabilise their
governing abilities in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has long
withheld Palestinian <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine>
tax revenue from the PA.

"The judgment will affect ordinary Palestinians who are already operating
on a 70 percent salary because the PA is a dysfunctional and for-profit
institution that is unable to even pay the full salaries of its employees,"
Jarrar explained.

"It will be levied against doctors and engineers and government employees.
It is the closest we can get to an act of collective punishment... these
are ordinary Palestinians."
The uprisings

The PA is the governing body that has overseen areas of the occupied West
Bank since 1994, as part of the Oslo Accords peace agreement between Israel
and the PLO.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/they-want-make-us-leave-israel-destroys-west-bank-wells-serving-palestinian-herders>

'They want to make us leave': Israel destroys West Bank wells serving
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<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/they-want-make-us-leave-israel-destroys-west-bank-wells-serving-palestinian-herders>

The PLO is an umbrella political coalition that is internationally
recognised as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both
the Palestinian territories and the diaspora.

The Second Intifada, or uprising, began on 28 September 2000, when
then-Israeli opposition leader, the vehemently right-wing Ariel Sharon, led
a delegation to the Al-Aqsa complex, in what was seen by Palestinians as an
act of provocation.

When mass rallies broke out in response, the Israeli army responded with
deadly violence, killing nearly 50 Palestinians in the first five days.

The Second Intifada is largely remembered for Israel's killing of
12-year-old Palestinian Mohammed al-Durrah as news cameras were rolling, in
what became the first instance of a live-streamed shooting of a child
hiding behind his father. The father survived.

Mohammed became a symbol of the Palestinian struggle against the
occupation.

The Second Intifada lasted some five years, with Israeli forces killing
nearly 5,000 Palestinians.

A thousand Israelis were killed in bombings and attacks carried out by
Palestinians inside Israel.
Separate rules

Monday's supreme court decision brings into sharp focus the notion that
foreign governments and leaders can face legal repercussions in the US,
while the US repudiates and undermines the international courts that were
specifically designed to bring accountability to victims of mass murder.

In July 2025, the US said it was placing sanctions on officials in the
PA and PLO over their work taking Israel to those courts.

According to the State Department, the unnamed officials were “not
complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace”.

It cited “initiating and supporting actions at international organizations”
and “taking actions to internationalize its conflict with Israel such as
through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of
Justice (ICJ)”.

Washington accused the figures of violating the PLO Commitments Compliance
Act of 1989 (PLOCCA) and the Middle East Peace Commitments Act of 2002
(MEPCA).

Since the Israeli assault on Gaza began in October 2023, killing more than
74,000 Palestinians, Israel has found itself diplomatically isolated.

This has been furthered by deadly Israeli settler attacks in the occupied
West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In September 2025, the Trump administration announced
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-bans-visas-palestinian-passport-holders>
it would revoke and deny visas to anyone affiliated with the PLO and PA,
and demanded the groups "consistently repudiate terrorism”, citing the
Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel, according to a US
State Department press release
<https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/08/trump-administration-reaffirms-commitment-to-not-reward-terrorism-and-revokes-visas-of-palestinian-officials-ahead-of-unga>
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