WASHINGTON — Palestinian authorities asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a $656 million judgment pending appeal. The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority filed the petition seeking a stay on the enforcement of the financial award while their legal challenge continues.

The legal dispute originates from attacks in Jerusalem in the early 2000s that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more. Victims of these attacks filed the lawsuit under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a federal law enacted in 1991 that allows U.S. citizens to sue foreign entities for acts of international terrorism if the acts occurred in the U.S. or were committed by U.S. nationals. The statute includes provisions that deem the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority to have consented to U.S. jurisdiction in such cases.

The Palestinian Authority was established in 1988 and has repeatedly faced legal challenges in U.S. courts related to acts of terrorism. This includes a 2015 jury verdict that awarded $10.5 million to victims of the 1993 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, though that judgment was later dismissed on jurisdictional grounds. In the current case, a federal court in New York previously ruled in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority.

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the families and revived the lawsuits in 2025. According to reports, the court ruled in Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization that the Anti-Terrorism Act allowed U.S. courts to assert jurisdiction over the entities, overturning the Second Circuit's earlier decision. Following this ruling, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the verdict in March 2026. Reports indicate this reinstatement followed the Supreme Court's 2025 decision that affirmed U.S. jurisdiction over the entities in terrorism-related cases.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs stated that the families were pleased and relieved by the decision to revive the lawsuits, saying it would allow "justice to be done." However, attorneys for the plaintiffs declined to comment on the petition to halt the judgment. The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority stated in court documents that paying the judgment would "destabilize critical government services Petitioners provide in the West Bank, injure innocent citizens, and jeopardize regional security."

The U.S. Supreme Court has a history of handling cases involving jurisdiction over foreign entities, including the 2004 case Boumediene v. Bush, which addressed the constitutional rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, and the 2007 Bennett v. United States case, which upheld the jurisdiction of U.S. courts over foreign governments in certain circumstances. The Court of Appeals is a current United States federal appellate court.