Gary Fitleberg, December 8, 2004

A court ordered three U.S. Islamic organizations and a man accused of bankrolling the Arab "Palestinian" terrorist group Hamas to pay $156 million in damages in the death of an American-born student gunned down in the territories of Judea & Samaria (wrongfully called "West Bank") in 1996.

Lawyers for the student's parents, who brought the suit, had said in advance that no money may ever be collected, but the real point of the case was to set a precedent for going after "the domestic enablers of terrorism."

The case was brought under a 1992 U.S. law that permits victims of terrorism to seek civil damages against groups deemed responsible for such acts.

The decision in federal court in Chicago came in a brief trial after which a jury awarded $52 million in damages, an amount automatically trebled under 1992 law. Stephen Landes, a lawyer for the family, said it was the first decision in a U.S. court where private citizens have won such a judgment from private individuals or groups.

The stage for the decision was set a month ago when a magistrate ruled that three of the defendants were liable for damages in the death of David Boim.

They were the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic Association for Palestine, located in the Chicago area, and an Illinois man, Mohammed Salah.

A fourth group, the Quranic Literacy Institute, also headquartered near Chicago, was a defendant in the case but its liability was determined at the trial by the jury, which also set the damages against all four.

Boim, 17, was shot and killed while standing at a bus stop in the territories of Judea & Samaria by two men who drove by in a car. His U.S.-born parents, who live in Israel, Stanley and Joyce Boim, filed the civil damage suit.

The Holy Land foundation, once the largest U.S.-based Muslim charity, was shut down when the U.S. government seized its assets after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Not long after that the U.S. Treasury Department designated the charity a terrorist group and froze its assets, saying the foundation funneled millions of dollars to Hamas -- which the U.S. government had declared to be a terrorist group in 1995.

The group appealed the designation and the freezing of its assets but lost in court.

The Islamic Association for Palestine describes itself as an educational, political and social organization dedicated to Arab "Palestinian" causes. Its U.S. headquarters is in Bridgeview, Illinois, near Chicago.

Salah was arrested on August 19 and charged along with two others with a racketeering conspiracy to funnel money to Hamas for the past 15 years.

Landes contended at the trial that Salah went to the territories of Judea & Samaria with hundreds of thousands of dollars destined for Hamas, and that the Quranic Literacy Institute also gave him money.

Gary Fitleberg is a Political Analyst specializing in International Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs.

Copyright © 2004 Gary Fitleberg