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When an American teen is killed in Mideast, who should pay for it?
By Mike Robinson
Associated Press
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CHICAGO -- David Boim was standing at a bus stop in a West Bank town near Jerusalem 12 years ago when terrorists opened fire, fatally shooting the 17-year-old American teenager. But a case that’s been dragging through the courts for eight years isn’t over who pulled the trigger in the May 1996 murder. It’s about who must pay the damages.

And a federal appeals court is still trying to come up with the answer.

Last December, a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a lower court’s order requiring several U.S.-based Islamic groups to pay a whopping $156 million to Boim’s family — who claimed money the groups gave to Palestinian charities ultimately helped fund terrorism.

But now the appeals court is second-guessing itself and revisiting the emotionally charged case, the first filed under a 1991 law allowing American victims of international terrorism to recover triple damages.

During an extraordinary, so-called “en banc” hearing before all 10 actively sitting judges last week, the bitterly contested, emotionally charged case came in for a fresh airing. How much longer the case will go on is anyone’s guess.

“It’s been an ordeal,” says Matthew J. Piers, an attorney for Muhammad Salah, the lone individual sued for damages by Joyce and Stanley Boim, the parents of the slain teenager.

The Boims also are suing the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development; the American Muslim Society, also known as the Islamic Association for Palestine; and the Quranic Literacy Institute, a group based in south suburban Bridgeview that translates Islamic texts.

The Boims say money Salah and the organizations gave to Palestinian charities on the West Bank was not used solely for humanitarian purposes. They say some of it bankrolled terrorism and thus ultimately paid for the teenager’s murder — even if it didn’t buy the specific gun and bullets.

Salah, 54, who is finishing a 22-month federal prison sentence for lying on documents in the Boim case, once was employed by the institute. He is a U.S. citizen who grew up in a West Bank refugee camp, spent 4½ years in Israeli prisons in the 1990s after police found $90,000 in cash allegedly destined for Hamas in his East Jerusalem hotel room.

But Piers told the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week that any money Salah gave the terrorist group was so long before David Boim was killed that there could be no relationship.

“There is no evidence that the defendant did anything that contributed to or caused the tragic death of David Boim,” Piers told the court.

Sweeping aside funding distinctions after 9/11

Holy Land Foundation attorney John W. Boyd of Albuquerque, N.M., says the group even had a rule: none of its humanitarian funds were to go to Hamas, which, besides engaging in armed violence, runs schools and clinics.

But he told the appeals judges that such distinctions got swept aside in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks when the government designated the foundation a terrorist organization and froze its assets.

“When these assumptions of guilt merge with the profound human sympathy we all feel for a family such as the Boims — who lost their son to terrorism — the prejudice against the HLF is enormous, as is the desire to find some justice for the Boims, whatever it takes,” Boyd wrote.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys in 2004 found the foundation, the American Muslim Society and Salah liable. A jury added Quranic Literacy Institute to the list and ordered all of the defendants to pay a total of $52 million in damages.

Keys tripled the amount to $156 million.

But a three-judge appeals panel ruled that the Boims had failed to show a tight enough link between the charitable contributions and the death of their son, and threw out the $156 million order.

Judges who are now taking another look say they wonder what evidence it would take to connect the contributions with the murder.

“I’m trying to get a handle on what the elements are,” Judge Ann Claire Williams said. Some judges suggested that unless the standard of proof were high charities such as the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders could get in trouble for providing medical aid in Third World countries.

But Boim attorney Nathan Lewin dismissed such qualms, saying his side had already presented everything it needs to prove its case, and scoffed at the notion that Islamic charities on the West Bank that received donations from the defendants were anything like the Red Cross.

Known Hamas fronts

In an impassioned, arm-waving presentation, Lewin said many such charities were “known fronts for Hamas, known supporters of Hamas.”

“All that needs to be shown is that it’s more likely than not that these defendants knew that the recipient group was a Hamas-related organization,” Lewin said.

Underlining the tough decision facing the court, Judge Richard A. Posner questioned Boyd sharply after the defense attorney said that the Holy Land Foundation had strictly refrained from donating to Hamas.

Posner said that might not be good enough to escape responsibility if the foundation had reason to know that the West Bank charities it did give money to had close ties with Hamas.

He cited the case of a British newspaper that he said printed what it honestly thought to be a fictional story about a man’s amorous adventures. It turned out that a man with the same name existed, and he won a libel suit against the paper.

Posner said the same might apply to organizations that contribute humanitarian aid if they had reason to believe the recipients had ties to terrorist organizations.

“You should know the consequences of what you’re doing,” he said.

If the appeals court lets the decision to throw out the damages stand, the matter could be sent back to the U.S. District Court, where the Boim attorneys would get another chance to prove their case. If the appeals panel upholds the lower court’s monetary judgment, the case could end up before the Supreme Court.

Both parties say it is too soon to speculate.

How soon the appeals court will reach a decision is also unclear. But both sides are already used to waiting.

Take a look
Joyce and Stanley Boim are seen outside federal court in Chicago in December 2004. The Boims' 17-year-old son, David, was shot and killed by terrorists on Israel's West Bank in 1996. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December 2007 threw out a lower court's order that requiring a number of U.S.-based Islamic activists to pay a whopping $156 million, but now the appeals court is second-guessing itself and revisiting the emotionally charged case. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
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Reader comments on this story - 8 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

4_nubbs wrote on Sep 18, 2008 12:40 AM:

" Re-Mike: I agree. Our government has done just that to chapters or charters of the Klan and other Fundamentalist/Extremist groups that have committed or contributed to acts of terrorism against our citizens. Why not suppress or fight these acts at home and abroad with the same vigor and reasoning? "

Mike wrote on Sep 16, 2008 6:43 AM:

" Put these "death charities" out of business. Take the money. Simple really. "

DT wrote on Sep 15, 2008 8:42 PM:

" to middle of the road: A holdover from the Carter years?
to Chelly: Because the charities are here under our courts jurisdiction and Hamas is over there under no one's jurisdiction. "

Chelly wrote on Sep 15, 2008 10:32 AM:

" I am sorry for the loss of their son but why arnet they suing Hamas for their son's death vs the charities that may or may not have supported Hamas? "

Reason wrote on Sep 15, 2008 10:12 AM:

" These organizations have been using the charity shield for too long. If it can be proven, that they were aware of the illegal use of their funds, make them pay. "

jipsi wrote on Sep 14, 2008 11:20 PM:

" to nicksmynick:

It's "akin" NOT (Clay?) "aiken'. :-)

But I do agree with your analogy. "

nicksmynick wrote on Sep 14, 2008 7:51 PM:

" This is aiken to suing Nabisco after an airline crash because there were triscuits on board. "

middle of the road wrote on Sep 14, 2008 6:22 PM:

" just to putthings in perspective. Up untill after 9-11 our State DSept listed hamus as a good charity. the State dept even donated money to them just before 9-11 "
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