Another blow was dealt yesterday to the, now defunct, largest Islamic charity in the United States, the Holy Land Foundation (HLF).
In another case, last month all five defendants were found guilty in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial in Dallas.
Yesterday, a federal appeals court ruled HLF should stand trial in the case of a young Jewish man who was killed in Israel:
"The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development should stand trial in a case accusing the organization of aiding terrorists, a U.S. appeals court ruled, reversing a lower court decision.
David Boim, 17, a U.S. and Israeli citizen, was waiting for a bus to Jerusalem in 1996 when he was shot from a passing car. His parents, Stanley and Joyce Boim, sued the Holy Land Foundation, the American Muslim Society, the Quranic Literacy Instituteand an individual, Muhammad Salah, claiming they supported Hamas, which helped train and arm the terrorists who killed their son. A trial judge issued a summary judgment against most of the defendants.
A jury awarded the Boims $52 million, which the district court tripled to $156 million under an antiterrorism law. An appeals court threw out the award in December, saying the trial judge erred in issuing the judgment without a trial. Today’s opinion upholds part of the trial judge’s decision, while reinstating the case against the Holy Land Foundation and dismissing it against Salah.
“The point of our case was to establish the principle that if you provide money to terrorist organizations under the guise of charity, you are still supporting terrorism,” Stephen Landes, an attorney for the Boims, said today in an interview.
The case is Stanley Boim vs. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, 05-1815, U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (Chicago).
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