Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has reintroduced the Limiting Immunity for Assisting Backers of Lethal Extremism (LIABLE) Act, which would allow for lawsuits against international organizations whose officials or employees materially support terrorism—just as sovereign countries can be sued for such conduct.

Since Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, victims have sued numerous alleged abettors. Just this week, over 200 American victims and their next of kin, represented by the prominent law firm Wilkie Farr & Gallagher, filed a lawsuit in federal court against a prominent Palestinian billionaire, accusing him of building commercial properties that were used to house and conceal Hamas infrastructure.

Other pending actions include defendants such as the Associated Press, which allegedly employed Hamas terrorists, as well as political activist organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine, accused of providing propaganda services.

U.S. law broadly extends liability to enablers of terror groups, not just the terrorists themselves. The prohibition forbids providing any kind of “material support,” direct or indirect, from services and supplies to communications.

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Yet current law denies victims any right to seek redress against one major category of Hamas enablers: international organizations (IOs). Examples include the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)—which the U.S. has now defunded on account of its employees’ participation in the invasion of Israel on October 7. Because of a legal loophole, IOs enjoy total immunity against lawsuits in U.S courts. Even sovereign states, which have near-absolute immunity, can be sued if they support terrorism, under a 1976 provision of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

Under FISA, American victims have been awarded over $18 billion in damages against rogue states like Iran, Libya, and Sudan. IOs therefore enjoy greater immunity today in federal court than the countries that created them. The Supreme Court has noted that Congress never intended this result. Indeed, it is absurd. Plaintiffs have filed actions against Iran and other states alleged to have helped Hamas on October 7—why should IOs enjoy a unique impunity?

Cruz had introduced the LIABLE Act in the previous session, with then-Senator Marco Rubio as a co-sponsor. But it had little prospect of passing a Democrat-controlled Senate or being signed into law by President Biden.

Things are different now. Donald Trump is in the White House, and his administration has signaled that it is open to lifting the immunity of IOs.

Moreover, the past year has provided even more evidence of how international organizations have been coopted by Hamas. Freed hostages have reported being held captive in UNRWA facilities. Twenty-four UNRWA teachers were confirmed as card-carrying terrorists. Nine Hamas terrorists (including three UNRWA employees) were found in an UNRWA clinic used as an arms depot in October 2024. Just last week, Israel struck an UNRWA clinic that it claimed was a Hamas command center.

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The World Health Organization, another IO, ran regular resupply missions to hospitals that had become notorious as Hamas bases. WHO’s secretary general boasted of delivering 45,000 liters of fuel to Kamal Adwan Hospital, where the IDF captured 240 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, and where Israeli hostages had been held. WHO also supplied 24,500 liters of fuel to Al-Shifa Hospital long after its use by Hamas had been confirmed. WHO also sought to protect these hospitals from attack by claiming they were purely civilian in nature.

Imagine if a city police department employed a dozen officers who invaded Mexico and murdered, raped, and kidnapped thousands of innocents. Or a city health department that made Uber Eats deliveries to violent drug cartels. No one doubts that these agencies should and would be held accountable in court. Somehow, IOs and their employees enjoy immunity broader than that of police officers or other municipal officials, broader even than that of FBI agents or the president himself.

Cruz’s commonsense bill should appeal equally to congressional Democrats, who emphasize accountability for official wrongdoing. “In our democracy, no one should be above the law,” Kamala Harris likes to say. When it comes to fighting terrorists and their abettors, we all have a vested interest in pursuing that laudable goal.