Dealing With The Murder of Americans By Hamas

Looks like Hamas needs Westerna aid after all. According to the Associated Press:

The exiled political leader of Hamas said Friday the world has the wrong image of the Islamic militant group and he urged the international community to stop viewing it through the eyes of Israel

The world has the 'wrong' image of Hamas?
OK. Let's view Hamas through the eyes of the US.

Last year on August 30, the Boston Globe carried this story:

Palestinian Authority's US assets are frozen
WASHINGTON -- A Rhode Island lawyer trying to collect a $116 million terrorism judgment against the Palestinian Authority has obtained a court-ordered freeze on all its US-based assets, severely limiting most Palestinian economic and diplomatic activities in the United States at a critical moment for the fledgling government.
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The frozen assets include US holdings in a $1.3 billion Palestinian investment fund meant to finance economic development as well as bank accounts used to pay Palestinian representatives in Washington, according to lawyers and court documents filed in Rhode Island, Washington, D.C., and New York. Also frozen are about $30 million in assets from the Palestinian Monetary Authority, the Palestinian equivalent of the US Federal Reserve.

Providence attorney David Strachman, who is representing the orphaned children of a couple killed in Israel by Palestinian militants, has also initiated a court action to seize and sell the Palestinian-owned building in New York that serves as the Palestine Liberation Organization observer mission to the United Nations.

It is not till later in the article that we find that the law suit derives from the murder of 2 Americans by Hamas back in 1996:

The case is the first to result in a financial judgment under a 1991 antiterrorism law that allows US citizens to sue foreign organizations in civil court for terrorism. It stems from the 1996 murders of Brooklyn-born Yaron Ungar, a US citizen, and his pregnant Israeli wife, Efrat, whose car was sprayed with bullets by Hamas militants.

But the Ungars were not the only Americans murdered by Hamas.

An article in the Jerusalem Post on August 2, 2002 reported on the reaction to the murder of 5 Americans by Hamas in a bombing at Hebrew University:

US politicians call to extradite HU terrorists
Several New York politicians are calling on the Bush administration to demand the extradition of the perpetrators of last week's terror attack at the Hebrew University to the US to stand trial for the murder of five American citizens.

Twenty-four Americans have been killed in Palestinian terror attacks, and 43 wounded, since September 2000.

At a Thursday evening press conference in New York, Sen. Charles Schumer (D) demanded the extradition of Hamas leaders to the US, among them spiritual head Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, after the terror group claimed responsibility for the July 31 blast inside a university cafeteria, which claimed the lives of seven students and staff members.

"If Hamas killed five Americans on US soil, the United States would demand justice for the families of the victims, and we would go after Hamas," Schumer said.

"We should do no less now. This was an attack on America, not simply an attack on Israel. And we need to take action. We cannot simply sit on the side and let these horrific attacks go unanswered."

Apparently the 'excuse' that Hamas was not intentionally trying to murder Americans does not wash:

Schumer dismissed a statement issued by Hamas after the bombing claiming that Americans had not been targeted in the attack. By planting the bomb at the Hebrew University, "they knew that they wouldn't just be killing Israelis, that they'd be killing Americans as well," said Schumer.

In the House, Rep. Anthony Weiner sent a letter to Attorney-General John Ashcroft on Thursday asking him to extradite those responsible for the attack. "US law makes it a crime to kill or injure, or to conspire to kill or injure, an American national outside the US in furtherance of a terrorist cause even if Americans were not the intended targets," Weiner wrote.

Actually there are even more Americans that have been murdered by Hamas. One website with a list of American victims of Palestinian terrorism running from 1968 to 2003 lists the following American victims of Hamas terrorist attacks:

December 1, 1993: Yitzhak Weinstock, age 19, an American-Israeli student whose family came from Los Angeles, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in a drive-by shooting attack near El Bireh, north of Jerusalem.

October 9, 1994: Nachshon Wachsman, an American-Israeli, was kidnapped and then murdered by Hamas terrorists.

August 21, 1995, Jerusalem, Israel. A bus bombing in Jerusalem by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) killed four, including American Joan Davenny, and wounded more than 100.

February 25, 1996, Jerusalem, Israel. A suicide bomber blew up a commuter bus in Jerusalem, killing 26, including three U.S. citizens, and injuring 80 others, among them another three U.S. citizens. Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing.

March 4, 1996, Tel Aviv, Israel. A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device outside the Dizengoff Center,David Boim Tel Aviv's largest shopping mall, killing 20 March 4, 1996 Tel Aviv Bombing persons and injuring 75 others, including two U.S. citizens. Both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing.

July 30, 1997, Jerusalem, Israel. Two bombs detonated in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, killing 15 persons, including a U.S. citizen and wounding 168 others, among them two U.S. citizens. The Izz-el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, claimed responsibility for the attack.

September 4, 1997: Yael Botwin, age 14, an American-Israeli from the Los Angeles suburb of Claremont killed in a Hamas suicide bombing attack in downtown Jerusalem.

August 9, 2001, Jerusalem, Israel. A suicide bombing at Sbarro's, a pizzeria situated in one of the busiest areas of downtown Jerusalem, killed 15 people, including a 31-year-old tourist from New Jersey, Shoshana Greenbaum and wounded more than 90. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

July 31, 2002, Jerusalem, Israel. Seven people including four Americans, Marla Bennett (24) of Marla Bennett David Gritz Benjamin Blutstein Janis Ruth CoulterSan Diego, California, David Gritz (24) of Peru, Massachusetts, Benjamin Blutstein (25) of Susquehanna Township, Pennsylvania and Janis Ruth Coulter (36) from New York were murdered when a remote-controlled bomb detonated in the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria on Jerusalem's Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus. Eighty-six others were injured. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to the Boston Globe article above:

Palestinian officials have refused to pay the claim, arguing that doing so would be a politically dangerous admission of responsibility for terrorist acts by militants that the Palestinian Authority contends it does not control. Three officials interviewed by telephone from Gaza and the West Bank say they fear setting a precedent that would spur an avalanche of lawsuits that could bankrupt the new government.

Now that we have the 'right' image of Hamas, by all means, let the avalanche begin.

Update: Soccer Dad has a post from December 2004 that discusses other successes in suing terrorists--and the difficulty in collecting.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Terrorism and Hamas and Palestinian Authority and Schumer and PLO.