WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that foreign corporations cannot be sued in American courts for human rights abuses overseas, refusing to revive a lawsuit claiming Jordan-based Arab Bank Plc helped finance militant attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories. In April 2017, the landmark anti-terrorism financing suit, which was presumed dead, was surprisingly resuscitated by the US Supreme Court agreeing to hear the appeal.That preliminary decision by the court led to speculation that if the plaintiffs won, the case could lead to a flood of anti-terrorism financing lawsuits by foreigners (including Israelis) against foreign financial entities (including those banking for Palestinian terrorist groups) that do business in the US.This would have changed the face of international banking and affected US diplomacy in a variety of unpredictable ways.But with Tuesday’s 5-4 vote, the decision left in place a lower court ruling that had previously thrown out the lawsuit brought by some 6,000 plaintiffs, including survivors and relatives of non-US citizens killed in attacks, filed under the 1789 US law called the Alien Tort Statute that accused Arab Bank of being terrorist groups’ “paymaster.”Only in recent years have plaintiffs sought to bring such cases under the obscure law.The plaintiffs accused Arab Bank of deliberately financing terrorism, including suicide bombings and other attacks. The decision was a blow to some 6,000 foreign victims, including survivors and relatives, of suicide bombings and other attacks in Israel and the Palestinian Territories from 1996 to 2005. The plaintiffs argued that the Arab bank's New York branch knowingly provided millions of dollars to finance suicide bombings and "martyrdom" payments to reward the families of terrorists who succeeded in killing civilians, keeping accounts for known terrorists and accepting donations they knew would be used for terrorist activity in Israel.
The United States Supreme Court rejects a case brought by foreign nationals under the Alien Tort Statute attempting to sue the Arab Bank over terror attacks in Israel.