WASHINGTON – In April, it looked like Mark Sokolow would finally get the relief he'd been waiting for for 22 years. He'd visited Jerusalem in January 2002 during the Second Intifada, and a suicide bomber's attack left him, his wife and three daughters – all American citizens – severely injured.
In 2015, a New York federal court ordered the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization to pay more than $650 million to Sokolow, his family and 22 other plaintiffs – American citizens who had been injured or lost a family member between the 2000 and 2005 Palestinian attacks on Israel.
The Palestinian organizations swiftly appealed, and a lower court blocked that requirement, but in March 2026, a judge reinstated the award.
This week,
the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization asked the Supreme Court in an emergency filing to pause the lower court ruling requiring the organizations to pay.
The groups told the Supreme Court that without a pause in payment, government resources will be strained, which would "injure innocent citizens, and jeopardize regional security." The Palestine Liberation Organization represents Palestinians internationally and leads the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The legal proceedings hinged on a narrow question: Could U.S. courts hold these organizations responsible. The federal court in New York ordered the original $655.5 million award, but the appeals court in 2015 ruled that no, U.S. courts did not have jurisdiction over the international Palestinian groups.
Following this ruling, lawmakers in Congress revised the law in 2019, making it possible for American victims to sue. In 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that under the 2019 law, American citizens could sue the Palestinian groups on American soil.
After this, Sokolow's case resumed in lower courts. The Palestinian groups are now arguing that even if the revised law created jurisdiction, the lower court could not reinstate the $655.5 million, since it was voided before the legal change. The groups want the Supreme Court to block the demand for payment while they continue to argue their case.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Palestinian groups ask Supreme Court to pause order to pay U.S. Intifada victims
