{ "id": "R46274", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R46274", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 620152, "date": "2020-03-18", "retrieved": "2020-03-18T22:05:12.335011", "title": "The Palestinians and Amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act: U.S. Aid and Personal Jurisdiction", "summary": "Two recent amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA, 18 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 2331 et seq.) have significant implications for U.S. aid to the Palestinians and U.S. courts\u2019 ability to exercise jurisdiction over Palestinian entities. They are the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018 (ATCA, P.L. 115-253) and the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act of 2019 (PSJVTA, \u00a7 903 of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, P.L. 116-94).\nCongress passed ATCA after a U.S. federal lawsuit (known in various incarnations as Waldman v. PLO and Sokolow v. PLO) against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that an appeals court dismissed in 2016. The trial court had found that the PA and PLO were responsible under ATA (at 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 2333) for various terrorist attacks by providing material support to the perpetrators. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the attacks, \u201cas heinous as they were, were not sufficiently connected to the United States to provide specific personal jurisdiction\u201d in U.S. federal courts.\nAmendments to ATA. ATCA provided that a defendant consents to personal jurisdiction in U.S. federal court for lawsuits related to international terrorism if the defendant accepts U.S. foreign aid from any of the three accounts from which U.S. bilateral aid to the Palestinians has traditionally flowed. In December 2018, the PA informed the United States that it would not accept aid that subjected it to federal court jurisdiction. Consequently, all bilateral aid ended on January 31, 2019.\nPSJVTA eliminated a defendant\u2019s acceptance of U.S. foreign aid as a trigger of consent to personal jurisdiction\u2014thus partly reversing ATCA\u2014and instead provides that PA/PLO payments related to a terrorist act that kills or injures a U.S. national act as a trigger of consent to personal jurisdiction. The PA/PLO may face strong Palestinian domestic opposition to discontinuing such payments. PSJVTA also directs the State Department to establish a mechanism for resolving and settling plaintiff claims against the PA/PLO. President Trump stated in a signing statement that this provision could interfere with the exercise of his \u201cconstitutional authorities to articulate the position of the United States in international negotiations or fora.\u201d\nImplications of stopping U.S. aid and prospects for resumption. It is unclear to what extent the stop to U.S. security assistance for the PA has affected Israel-PA security cooperation and could affect it in the future. The U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (USSC) said in December 2019 that the suspension of aid had not significantly affected Israel-PA security cooperation, but that the disruption of initiatives aimed at facilitating cooperation and helping reform the PA security sector had some impact on PA acquiescence to USSC requests aimed at reform and greater professionalization.\nEven though PSJVTA removed acceptance of U.S. bilateral aid as a trigger for personal jurisdiction, the actual resumption of U.S. aid may depend on political decisions by Congress and the Administration, as well as cooperation from the PA. For FY2020, Congress has appropriated $75 million in PA security assistance for the West Bank and $75 million in economic assistance for the \u201chumanitarian and development needs of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza.\u201d However, the Trump Administration had previously suggested that restarting U.S. aid for Palestinians could depend on a resumption of PA/PLO diplomatic contacts with the Administration, which may be unlikely in the current U.S.-Israel-Palestinian political climate. Additionally, it is possible that the PA might not accept aid if doing so could be perceived domestically as giving in to U.S. political demands on the peace plan, or as tacitly agreeing to the new triggers of potential PA/PLO liability in PSJVTA.\nImplications for personal jurisdiction. The extent to which Congress can provide by statute\u2014such as through ATA\u2014that a foreign entity (in this case, the PA/PLO) is deemed to consent to personal jurisdiction appears to be untested in court. The deemed consent provision in ATA may encounter legal challenges on the basis that it could constitute an unconstitutional condition. A condition attached to government benefits is unconstitutional if it forces the recipient to relinquish a constitutional right that is not reasonably related to the purpose of the benefit. If this concept applies to personal jurisdiction, a reviewing court may need to determine whether submission to jurisdiction has a rational relationship with PA/PLO payments or other PA/PLO activities, such as maintenance of facilities in the United States.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R46274", "sha1": "c5f9fb56eb5c8c9f9acc493628563442c30ccd1a", "filename": "files/20200318_R46274_c5f9fb56eb5c8c9f9acc493628563442c30ccd1a.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46274_files&id=/0.png": "files/20200318_R46274_images_0ca65df2bf91b43f3f5100842527565bd85769dd.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46274_files&id=/1.png": "files/20200318_R46274_images_492d4bec6a7a590089294c26090dc1215918d7b4.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R46274", "sha1": "d9d6edd427648105712696c5945abac5436fb03a", "filename": "files/20200318_R46274_d9d6edd427648105712696c5945abac5436fb03a.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Appropriations", "Constitutional Questions", "Foreign Affairs", "Intelligence and National Security", "Middle Eastern Affairs", "National Defense" ] }