The Palestinian presidency said that lawyers had obtained a New York court ruling that an American law that subjected the Palestinian National Authority and the Liberation Organization to American jurisdiction was unconstitutional.
And the official news agency (Wafa) quoted the Palestinian presidency as commending it - yesterday, Friday - for what it described as the great and important success achieved by lawyers.
And she said, "The Southern District Court in New York issued a decision in which it found that the ATCA law... which the US Congress passed in 2018 is unconstitutional in establishing jurisdiction over the Palestinian National Authority and the Liberation Organization."
According to the Palestinian presidency, Congress passed this law to open the door for American and Israeli citizens to file lawsuits against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, against the background of what is known as the Sokolo case.
The Sokolo case was filed against the Palestinian Authority and the PLO to demand compensation of more than one billion dollars to a number of American citizens and dual nationals who say they were affected by armed operations that took place in occupied Jerusalem between 2001 and 2004.
Mark Sokolow, the lead prosecutor in the case, says he and his family were injured in a 2002 bombing in Jerusalem.
In July 2019, the US House of Representatives passed a bill amending the ATCA (Anti-Terrorism Act) law, to guarantee compensation for victims of terrorism, and is known as the “Promotion of US-Israeli Cooperation and Regional Security Bill.”
The Palestinian presidency said that the US court's decision - which was issued on Thursday - is the latest in a "series of brilliant successes that have been achieved in this regard."
She noted that the last similar decision was made by the Washington District Court last January in the case of Ari Fuld, an American settler who was killed in a settlement in the West Bank in 2018.