The U.S. State Department reached a settlement on Tuesday, committing to the enforcement of the Taylor Force Act, an anti-terrorism law barring U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority as long as it continues to subsidize terrorists and their families.
“This settlement reaffirms a basic principle, which is that American law cannot tolerate taxpayer dollars flowing to a system that rewards terrorism,” Mark Goldfeder, CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JNS.
In Jackson et al. v. Trump et al. (initially, Jackson v. Biden when filed in 2022), America First Legal sued the Biden administration on behalf of Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) and the parents of Taylor Force for “unlawfully financing a foreign government that continues to incentivize terrorism,” in violation of the Taylor Force Act.
Force, 28, a U.S. Army veteran and graduate-school student, was killed in a stabbing attack in Jaffa in 2016. The suit also includes terror-victim advocate Sarri Singer, now in her 50s, who was injured in a suicide bus-bombing in Jerusalem in 2003 that killed 17 people.
The act was passed by Congress in 2018 and signed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Under the agreement, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, the State Department committed to comply with the Taylor Force Act and to establish stricter internal review procedures.
The settlement remains in effect for 10 years.
“Today is a good day,” said Stuart Force, Taylor’s father. “This settlement agreement with the State Department reinvigorates the Taylor Force Act after the Biden administration ignored the law.”
