Justice for David Boim

Chicago lawyers win a battle in the war against terror

A LANDMARK COURT CASE HAS ENDED IN Chicago, with a verdict that has the potential of dealing a major blow to the financing of terrorism. The Jewish community can be proud that, thanks to a local law firm working essentially probono, individuals and organizations that raise money in this country for groups that engage in terrorism will be held legally accountable for the actions of the groups their funds support.

"It was something we could do as lawyers to fight terror," Stephen Landes who, with Richard Hoffman prosecuted the case, told the Jewish Star.

"It was personally very satisfying to use my law skills for a very important purpose -- the war on terror," Mr. Landes added.

ON DECEMBER 8, THREE ISLAMIC charitable organizations and one individual were found guilty of funding the Hamas terrorist organization, and therefore legally liable in the murder of American-born, 17-year-old David Boim.

In 1996, David Boim was shot in the head by Hamas terrorists as he waited at a bus stop in the West Bank.

Four years after his murder, David's parents, Joyce and Stanley Boim, Americans who have lived in Israel since 1985, filed suit under a federal law passed in 1990 that permits terrorism victims to sue for civil damages.

The verdict was the first successful one under this law, and the first one brought by Americans against terrorism outside this country, according to Mr. Landes.

The amount of the award was $156 million. As Mr. Landes summed up the matter, the "organizations that support terrorism, overtly or covertly, are subject to liability. It is outrageous that money was being raised here to commit terror against Americans."

He thinks that donors will now ask where their money is going before they contribute.

"I hope this will put a dent in the terror organizations," Mr. Landes added. "This is what we set out to do."

MR. LANDES' AND MR. HOFFMAN'S LAW firm, Wildman Harrold, was approached by Washington, D.C. attorney Nathan Lewin, who had filed the original lawsuit on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Boim in 2000, to take over the case in Chicago.

They agreed to do so.

A major result of their commitment to the case is a precedent-setting verdict that will have widespread implications for American victims of terror, here and abroad.

Pending lawsuits by 9/11 victims and their families, for example, now have a legal basis for arguing that supporters of terror are complicit in terrorists acts, even if they did not directly participate.

And there is a heavy financial price to pay for that complicity -- the way has been shown for U.S. courts to bankrupt Islamic organizations in this country that operate in the guise of charities while actually supporting terrorism.

NO JUDGMENT OR VERDICT, OF COURSE, can compensate for the loss of David Boim's life, or that of any other terrorist victim.

But the Boim case has made the first dent in cutting off the funding of terror; eventually, as other cases make more and more dents, terror organizations will be hindered in obtaining, or retaining, funds they need to finance their murderous acts.

It took one successful case to strike the first blow. We are grateful for the determination and steadfastness of those who made it happen.

Article copyright Star Media Group, Inc.