By Haggai Carmon

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and members of the royal family claim in the U.S. Supreme Court that they enjoy immunity from lawsuits brought by insurance companies. The companies are trying to recover billions they paid in property-damage claims following the September 11^th attacks. The insurance companies claim that Saudi Arabia should be held accountable for the attacks because Saudi Kingdom-supported Islamic charities financed al-Qaida. The plaintiffs will have to convince the court that although the United States Department of State has never designated the Saudi Kingdom as “a state sponsor of terrorism,” nonetheless, the Kingdom supported al-Qaida and therefore, cannot be protected by immunity under the federal Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.