Ramallah/PNN/

A United States federal court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by pro-Israel groups and individuals against the Palestinian Authority asking for compensation in the hundreds of millions of dollars after it considered amended laws used as the basis for the lawsuit to be unconstitutional, today said Minister of Finance Shukri Bishara.

He said that a federal court in Manhattan, New York, has issued a ruling in a case against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), demanding compensations in the millions of dollars in light of laws amended specifically to subject the PA and the PLO to the jurisdiction of the American courts.

Bishara explained that US District Judge Jesse Forman in Manhattan issued a decision dismissing this lawsuit, and considered the amended laws unconstitutional.

He expressed satisfaction with this ruling, saying that the team of lawyers following up on these cases has succeeded in proving the unconstitutionality of these amended US laws.

He pointed out that the team of lawyers that has been working with the PA since 2014, through the Palestinian Ministry of Finance, has succeeded in dismissing all the cases brought against it under the argument of no jurisdiction for the US courts.

The pro-Israel lobby that has filed lawsuits against the PA was able to amend the laws through Congress, including the Taylor Force Act amendment.

In 2018, the US Congress passed the Taylor Force Act, named after a US citizen killed by Palestinians in Israel, which restricts non-humanitarian US aid to the Palestinian Authority until it ends its payments for Palestinian freedom fighters killed or imprisoned by Israel. It also makes the PA, as the recipient of US aid, liable for lawsuits in US courts.