 The late David Boim. |
The lawsuit has now been judged and the Boims won the case, or at least the first round. Here are extracts reporting on yesterday's decision from the Chicago Tribune's report, "3 Islamic fundraisers held liable in terror death."
In a victory for the parents of a 17-year-old gunned down in a terrorist attack in Israel, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that three Islamic fundraisers, including a Chicago-area man, are legally responsible for his death.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys ruled that the fundraisers are liable for the 1996 slaying of David Boim because they helped finance the militant Palestinian group Hamas. The decision names Muhammad Salah of Bridgeview, the Islamic Association for Palestine, which recently closed its Palos Hills office, and the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
The decision is the first holding U.S. citizens or organizations liable under a 1990 federal law that allows victims of terrorism to sue for civil damages. In a case in Rhode Island, plaintiffs last year won a multimillion-dollar judgment against Hamas, but the group didn't contest the lawsuit. Keys' ruling means the judge has found Salah and the two groups liable for damages. A jury trial starting Dec. 1 will determine if they have to pay the Boims. That jury also will have to determine whether another defendant, the Quranic Literacy Institute of Oak Lawn, is liable and if it should pay. ...
the case got a boost in 2002 from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. In a landmark ruling, the appeals court said the groups could be held liable if the Boims could establish that they "aided and abetted" David Boim's killing. On Wednesday, Keys said the Boims didn't have to show that the defendants knew about the attack on David Boim or did anything specifically to aid the attack. Instead, "the Boims need only show that the defendants were involved in an agreement to accomplish an unlawful act and that the attack that killed David Boim was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the conspiracy," according to Keys' opinion. Keys ruled that the Boims presented ample evidence that the three defendants knowingly supported Hamas and its terrorist activities. ...
In his determination about Holy Land Foundation, which was one of the country's largest Islamic charities, Keys relied heavily on recent federal court rulings in Washington. Those legal actions arose after Holy Land Foundation unsuccessfully challenged the government decision's to freeze its assets after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Evidence in the Washington court case showed that the Holy Land Foundation provided substantial funding to charities in Israel that were fronts or supporters of Hamas, according to Keys. The judge also said the charity frequently focused on supporting the families of suicide bombers. In July, the government indicted the charity, which has ceased to operate, and several of its officers for conspiring to aid Hamas. ...
[Stephen] Landes, the attorney for the Boim family, said he intends to seek damages of about $15 million. The defendant with the most assets is believed to be the Holy Land Foundation, with several million dollars in charitable contributions frozen by the government.
(November 11, 2004)
Dec. 14, 2004 update: I wrote a second article on this topic at "[The Boim Trial:] Exploiting the Koran to Terrorize," focusing on the role of the Quranic Literacy Institute.
Dec. 28, 2007 update: The Boims lost at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The full text of the decision can be found at "Stanley Boim and Joyce Boim v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, et al."
Jan. 29, 2008 update: Aaron Eitan Meyer provides a stinging assessment of the appelate decision at "Legalism over Justice: The Case of the Boim Decision."
June 23, 2008 update: Andrew McCarthy reports that "the Seventh Circuit has reversed itself and granted rehearing en banc (i.e., before all judges of the Seventh Circuit, not just the three judges on the first panel) to consider the question whether a donor who contributes to an organization the donor knows to be a terrorist organization may properly be prosecuted for providing material support to terrorism absent proof that the donor intended to advance the violent component of the organization's activities."
Dec. 3, 2008 update: A federal appeals court upheld the $156 million judgment against the three Palestinian charities for funding terrorism. It also dropped Muhammad Salah from the case, on the grounds that he was in jail when an anti-terrorism charity law was passed. (But Salih was found guilty of obstruction of justice and in 2007 sentenced to 21 months in prison.)
Apr. 24, 2016 update: Muhammad Salah died today. Jailed by the Israelis and deemed a "specially designated terrorist" by the U.S. government, he was celebrated in his mosque as a "giant in his life and a symbol of the true faithful. He was a role model to all of us with his humility and steadfastness." Apr. 26, 2016 update: American Muslims for Palestine tendered its condolences to Salah's family, calling him "a man who embodied strength, resilience and faith in the face of what has been one of the most arduous struggles confronted by anyone of our time."
July 19, 2016 update: For the importance of the Boim case, see David Adesnik, "Sue the Bastards: More than one way to fight the war on terror," in the Weekly Standard.
The Boim case represented a turning point in the effort of both private citizens and the federal government to use the law as a means of punishing terrorists and their sponsors. One of [Nathan] Lewin's fellow attorneys in Boim soon brought suit against Iran for sponsoring the 1983 bombing of the barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Marines. The lead plaintiff, the sister of a fallen Marine, told reporters: "We don't want to be victims of terror anymore. We want to be soldiers in the war on terrorism; the courtroom is our battlefield."
May 12, 2017 update: Boim's parents have become true counterjihadi warriors: Now, they have sued American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) for funding Hamas. While AMP, whose chairman is the notorious Hatem Bazian of UC-Berkely, argues it did not support the military wing of Hamas, U.S. law does not allow for such a distinction. Support for Hamas is support for Hamas, full stop. In the words of a court decision, "if you give money to an organization that you know to be engaged in terrorism, the fact that you earmark it for the organization's non-terrorist activities does not get you off the liability hook."
May 27, 2021 update: Twenty-five years and some days after David Boim's murder, oral arguments are finally beginning in his estate's attempt to collect on the $156 million judgment. The wheels of justice grind exceedingly slowly.
Aug. 18, 2021 update: In a major development, the Boims won a legal victory on Aug. 16. Melissa Weiss explains:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a dismissal of the case that had prevented the family from moving forward to collect the $156 million judgement from the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) and the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) — organizations they claim had shuttered and reopened under a new name in order to avoid payment. ...
Shortly after the 2004 ruling [against them], IAP/AMS and HLF closed their doors. Within a year of the shuttering of both groups, the nonprofit American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) was created, and hired former staff from both organizations. In addition, AMP began holding annual conferences at the same time and featuring the same speakers, attendees and management as previous IAP/AMS conferences.
"When we realized that they were essentially the same organizations under different names," explained Daniel Schlessinger, an attorney representing the Boim family, "we filed our lawsuit, in 2017, under this 'alter ego theory.'"
A judge in Illinois had initially ruled that AMP could not be considered an "alter ego" of the earlier organizations, a classification usually reserved for corporate cases in which a company shuts down, only to transfer assets, institutional knowledge and clientele, among other things, to a newly created company.
The Boim family encountered multiple dismissals, appealing or asking for reconsideration — winning each time.
Following Monday's ruling, the Boim family's attorneys will attempt to prove in court the direct linkage between AMP and IAP/AMS.
The Boims' lawyer, Stephen Landes notes that the groups fined $156 million claimed bankruptcy and then opened shop under new auspices. "They moved down the street and put a new name on the door. If you can change your name to avoid paying a judgment, it makes a farce of the statute."
May 19, 2022 update: U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman "allowed a lawsuit to proceed that claims the anti-Israel group American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is really a continuation of a defunct cog in a Hamas-support network," reports Abha Shankar of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. The judge wrote: "The pertinent factors identified by the Seventh Circuit and discussed by the parties support the Boims' claim that Entity Defendants are liable for the Boim I judgment as alter egos of Holy Land and AMS/IAP."
