By Cliff Rieders
The Rieders Foundation is proud to have acted as an amici curiae in the case of Miriam Fuld vs. Palestinian Liberation Organization, et al., in the United States Supreme Court, and to have served as an advisor to counsel of record in connection with the content of the brief.
The primary role of the Rieders Foundation was to emphasize how terrorist organizations like the Palestinian Liberation Organization work in the United States to obtain support for their nefarious activities.
This superbly written brief addresses the reluctance of United States courts, in the past, to permit claims to be filed against terrorist organizations where Americans are killed abroad.
The Rieders Foundation was founded in 1990 and continues its work in a variety of fields, including, where necessary, litigation. One of the first major and highly recognized efforts of The Rieders Foundation was the creation of a documentary entitled Golden Treasures: The Vatican Judaica Collection. This film, still to be found on YouTube, looks at both sides of the question as to what valuable Judaica exist and are housed at the Vatican. It is the only film, that we are aware of, where the Vatican, through Dom Farina, cooperated.
The film can be found at the following link:
Most recently, The Rieders Foundation was involved in supporting the case of Podell vs. Department of Defense. This was the first time that the Department of Defense recognized that an observant Jewish person, including applicants, must be reasonably accommodated if the applicant or employee is a Sabbath observer. This represented a great change in the attitude of the Department of Defense.
The Foundation has been involved in helping individuals in financial need, in supporting legal efforts such as those referenced here, and in a great variety of other endeavors. The Rieders Foundation published one of the first in depth reviews of the Rockefeller Foundation and how it supported causes which not only undermined the Jewish people and the State of Israel but can reasonably be described as antisemitic.
The Fuld brief discussed the “Pay for Slay” program embedded in Palestinian law and institutions. The PLO and its allies support the families of murderers who commit terrorist activities. Some of the victims have actually been targeted by Palestinian terrorists because they are Americans. Current in the news is the fact that Israel will receive back innocent hostages abducted by Hamas and Gaza and in return will have to release some of the most heinous terrorists and murderers known to civilization, modern or ancient. The budget created by terrorist supporters amounts to $350 million annually in compensation and stipends for those who commit the heinous acts and their families.
Congress has tried assiduously to stop the “Pay for Slay” program. However, judicial decisions, particularly in the Second Circuit, have held that the PLO is not subject to personal jurisdiction in the United States regardless of the fact that the victims are Americans.
Congress has attempted to remedy this situation by passing a number of laws specifically targeting the “Pay for Slay” program. Nevertheless, the Second Circuit continues to dismiss lawsuits claiming that US laws seeking to protect American citizens violate the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
There is nothing in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment which could possibly be supportive of the notion that Congress does not have a right to protect Americans abroad who are specifically targeted by terrorist organizations. The Fuld brief describes in clear and discreet detail the history of the PLO and its terrorist exploits. With the progression of time, the “Pay for Slay” program, now run by the Palestinian Authority, continues to grow. Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018 (“ATCA”) specifically to, “ensure that victims of international terrorism can obtain justice in United States courts.” The bill passed both chambers of Congress by unanimous consent and was signed into law on October 3, 2018. It is rare that any bill in Congress receives such an overwhelming endorsement.
Congress has also passed the Taylor Force Act recognizing that the Pay for Slay program is an incentive to terrorists and their families to commit acts of terrorism. Finally, in 2019 Congress enacted PSJVTA. This law also had broad bipartisan support. The latest law, attempting to combat terrorism, provides that personal jurisdiction is proper if, 120 days after the PSJVTA’s enactment, the PLO or PA pays a terrorist who has been in prison for committing any act of terrorism that injured or killed an American and was paid because of the imprisonment. Jurisdiction would also apply if the payment is made to the terrorist’s family because the terrorist was killed while committing the act of terrorism. The second basis for jurisdiction provides that the PLO/PA consent to jurisdiction 15 days after the PSJVTA’s enactment, if they procure, establish, or maintain any office, headquarters, premises, or other facilities or establishments in the United States, or otherwise conduct activities on behalf of the PLO office present in the United States.
The concept behind this bill was to give fair warning to the PLO/PA that they would be required to answer for their actions in the United States consistent with the Fifth Amendment.
The Rieders Foundation counseled the importance of the brief pointing out that both the PLO and the PA maintain a presence in the United States, attend United Nations sessions in New York, and seek to influence American public opinion broadly. The PLO and PA have offices in New York with over a dozen employees, have participated in interviews and press conferences, and have exploited American communications to advance their cause.
The PLO and PA use American social media, appear at and donate to American universities, and propagate propaganda in English. The Rieders Foundation believe that such a blatant use of American media and facilities should certainly subject the terrorist group to jurisdiction in United States courts when Americans are targeted and killed abroad.
The amount of foreign gifts to colleges and universities include not only George Washington University, Wayne State University, John Hopkins School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkley, and George Mason University, but to many other colleges and universities as well. The terrorist entities have infiltrated the American university structure with money.
The Rieders Foundation and others involved in the brief urged the United States Supreme Court to reverse the decision of the Second Circuit and to permit lawsuits by aggrieved Americans who have been attacked and murdered abroad. The Fifth Amendment, under no reasonable circumstance, can be seen as a bar to the protection of Americans from groups, individuals, and entities which come to our country to undermine our democracy and to encourage violence against our citizens, both in the United States and abroad.