A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that two Islamic charities based in the United States and a Chicago man suspected of fund-raising for Hamas were liable for damages in the shooting death of an American teenager in Israel in 1996.
Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys said the defendants had clearly known that the money they sent to Palestinian groups on the West Bank was destined for Hamas and that the group was involved in terrorism.
Stephen J. Landes, a lawyer for the parents of the slain teenager, David Boim, said the ruling was the first in which a court had held organizations based in the United States liable for terrorism abroad.
Judge Keys ordered a jury trial for Dec. 1 to decide how much must be paid by the two charities, Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and the Islamic Association for Palestine, and the Chicago man, Mohammed Salah.
Mr. Landes said: "This is a huge win for victims of terrorism. It shows the law works."
David Boim's parents, Stanley and Joyce Boim, are seeking $600 million, though lawyers say there is little chance of collecting that amount. The parents claim that money from the charities found its way to Hamas and therefore financed the type of violence that killed their son.
David Boim, 17, a yeshiva student, was fatally shot while waiting for a bus in the West Bank. One of his Hamas attackers was caught and sentenced to 10 years in prison; the other died in a 1997 suicide bombing.
The Holy Land Foundation's lawyer, John Boyd, said the charity had been unfairly singled out.
The defendants deny any ties to Hamas and argue that there was no evidence to show that money they sent to charities on the West Bank was tied to the Boim killing.