From Beirut to October 7, American victims of Iranian terrorism await justice that may never come

American victims of Iranian state-sponsored terrorism, including those from the 1983 Beirut embassy bombing and the October 7, 2023, attacks, face significant challenges in receiving court-awarded compensation. The US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund (USVSST Fund), established in 2015, has distributed over $10 billion, but this is a fraction of the tens of billions awarded in judgments, leaving many families waiting for decades. Some victims, like Estera Votaw, a Holocaust survivor whose husband was killed in Beirut, died without receiving any payment.

“American victims of Iran's state-sponsored terrorism have waited far too long for the justice and restitution they are legally owed,”

said Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY). To address this, Representatives Gillen and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) introduced a bill seeking a $3 billion Treasury loan to ensure victim payouts over the next three years, to be repaid through collected sanctions penalties. Lawyer Aryeh Portnoy emphasized the growing number of victims and the plea to the US government to prevent more victims from dying without justice.