Washington
The parents of an American teen-ager slain on the West Bank have filed suit in a federal court in Chicago against Islamic groups and charities, claiming they raised money in the United States for Hamas, a radical Islamic group that has carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis.
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Also among the defendants is Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a native of Gaza who was deported to Jordan in 1997 and then deported from the kingdom last year when King Abdullah closed the Hamas political bureau in Amman, and Mohammed Abdul Hamid Khalil Salah, described as the leader of Hamas" military branch and a resident of Illinois. |
The Boims asked for $600 million in damages in what could be the first effort by individuals to use federal terrorism laws against what the suit called "a network of front organizations" in the United States that raise money for Islamic causes.
Actually, the suit contended, the money was channeled to terrorists and some of it was used to pay for the vehicle, machine guns and ammunition used to kill the Boims' son David, a 17-year-old yeshiva student who was gunned down in 1996 waiting with other students at a bus stop in Beit El, on the West Bank. Earlier, the two attackers had opened fire on a civilian bus and injured two passengers.
The Palestinian Authority apprehended Amjad Hinawi and Khalif Tawfiq Al-Sharif, described in the court papers as known members of Hamas' military wing, in 1997.
Hinawi confessed and was tried and convicted by a Palestinian court in 1997 and sentenced in 1998 to 10 years in prison. According to the suit, Al-Sharif was released by Palestinian authorities and participated in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 1997 in which five civilians were killed and 192 injured.
Among the groups named as defendants were Quranic Literacy Institute, with offices in Oak Lawn, Ill.; Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a California corporation with a branch office in Illinois; and Islamic Association for Palestine. The Quranic institute is said to translate and publish sacred Islamic texts. The Holy Land foundation claims to conduct a variety of humanitarian relief and development efforts. The Islamic association disseminates information on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Also among the defendants is Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a native of Gaza who was deported to Jordan in 1997 and then deported from the kingdom last year when King Abdullah closed the Hamas political bureau in Amman, and Mohammed Abdul Hamid Khalil Salah, described as the leader of Hamas" military branch and a resident of Illinois.
A telephone number is listed for a Mohammed Salah in Bridgeview, Ill., but efforts to reach him were unsuccessful because the number is not published.
"In general, the allegations that have been brought against us in this case and the preceding case that's still in court are utterly false," said Ahmer Haleem, secretary of the Quranic Literacy Institute in Oak Lawn, Ill., a suburb just sought of Chicago. "In my judgment, they are persecutorial in nature.
"I think that it's important for people in the media to begin to take a deeper look at what's happening to Muslims in America," Halem said, adding that he believes Muslims are being unfairly targeted by government authorities, such as the FBI as part of an aggressive anti-terrorism effort.
"Rather than protecting American citizens, they are targeting Muslims," he said. "There's an assumption in the media that Muslims are somehow associated with terrorism. It's as dangerous as the Oklahoma bombing situation pointed out."
Haleem's reference to the "preceding case" was to a civil forfeiture action brought by the Justice Department under the same law relied on by the suits filed Friday by individual platintiffs. The Justice Department civil case has been put on hold by a federal judge as the request of the defendants, who said they also were subjects of a criminal investigation.
A message left Sunday with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development branch in Palos Hills, Ill., was not immediately returned.
No listing could be found in Illinois for a branch of the Islamic Association for Palestine.
CHICAGO
The parents of an American teen-ager killed by members of a Palestinian militant group in the West Bank can sue U.S. Islamic charities accused of contributing to the organization, a federal appeals court ruled.
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Named as defendants in the Boims' lawsuit are Quranic Literacy Institute of Oak Lawn; Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which has offices in Palos Hills; and Mohammed Abdul Hamid Khalil Salah, a Bridgeview resident who served five years in an Israeli prison for funneling funds to Hamas. |
"It should be taken as a warning to any contributors to an organization that supports terrorism that if there is an American victim, he can sue the contributors and recover huge damages in an American court," said Nathan Lewin, an attorney for Joyce and Stanley Boim. The couple filed a $300 million lawsuit in the 1996 killing of their son, David, by Hamas militants.
The court's decision marked the first time a federal appeals court ruled on the provisions of the 1992 federal Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows for the recovery of damages due to acts of terrorism.
"It's a notable decision both for the fact that it addresses a very interesting and largely unsettled free-speech issue and it arises in the context of lots of terrorist acts taking place," said Jesse Chopper, law professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Attorneys for the charities, which had appealed a trial judge's decision not to throw out the lawsuit, argue that only people who commit terrorist acts can be sued under the law.
Named as defendants in the Boims' lawsuit are Quranic Literacy Institute of Oak Lawn; Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which has offices in Palos Hills; and Mohammed Abdul Hamid Khalil Salah, a Bridgeview resident who served five years in an Israeli prison for funneling funds to Hamas.
The groups have said there is no way they could have known that any money they contributed to organizations on the West Bank would be used in the Boim shooting.
John Beal, an attorney representing the Quranic Literacy Institute, which translates Islamic texts, said no decision has been made on whether to ask the full court to hear the case or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Holy Land Foundation, whose offices were raided and closed by the U.S. Treasury Department in December as part of a terrorism investigation, has denied supporting terrorism, saying it raises funds for humanitarian and disaster relief. Salah couldn't be reached for comment because he has an unlisted phone number.
The Boims are former New Yorkers who live in Jerusalem. Their son was a 17-year-old yeshiva student when he was gunned down while waiting with other students at a bus stop in the Jewish settlement of Beit El. The men apprehended in the attack were described in court papers as members of Hamas.