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

The 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 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 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.

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 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.