My Son Was One of the First Americans Killed by Hamas

The recent news that a group called American Muslims for Palestine was ordered by a Virginia court to provide financial documentation to state Attorney General Jason Miyares as part of an investigation into the group’s funding sources and allegations it may have used funds for “benefitting or providing support to terrorist organizations,” was another reminder of the need to shut down Hamas and its terror tentacles worldwide. But to me, the news hit particularly hard, because my son David Boim was one of the first American citizens killed by Hamas.

It was Monday, May 13 of 1996, and David was 17. Although he was born in New York, he was studying at a yeshiva in Israel, and, that fateful morning, he was standing at a bus stop with his friends, chatting happily as he waited for his ride back home to Jerusalem.

Tragically, Amjad Hinawi and Khalil Tawfiq Al-Sharif had other, evil plans. The two Hamas terrorists contemplated an attack on a nearby military base, but the sight of soldiers with guns made them lose heart. Better, they reasoned, to seek out more vulnerable targets. Driving around, they first shot at a bus, wounding two passengers. Then, they spotted the kids at the bus stop and opened fire.

David’s friend Yair Greenbaum was shot in the chest and later recovered. David wasn’t so lucky: He was struck in the head and was pronounced dead within the hour. Hinawi and Al-Sharif fled to the Palestinian Authority and remained committed to murder and terrorism. A year after he had murdered my son, Al-Sharif blew himself up on Jerusalem’s Ben Yehuda street, killing five and wounding 192 Israelis.

Over the years since David was murdered, I have visited his grave hundreds of times. I told him about the lawsuit his father and I filed against American organizations we believed were fundraising fronts for Hamas. I shared with him the good news when we won that lawsuit in 2004 and were awarded a $156 million judgment. And I wept for him as the same organizations found guilty of providing material support to the terrorists quickly disbanded rather than comply with the court’s ruling. Then I was told that many of the same terrorism supporters went on to play very similar roles in very similar organizations, only with different names.

I’m not a lawyer and not a legal expert, but I know a mockery of justice when I see one, which is why my husband and I decided to file another lawsuit and insist that justice prevail.

But it’s not the legal proceedings I’ve been thinking about since Oct. 7. It’s not even hearing that some of the very same people who provided support to my son’s killers are now training young college students, not much older than David was when he was murdered, to once again hate and assault Jews. Rather, it’s that so little seems to have changed since my son was shot for no other reason than being Jewish. The same terrorists who helped plan my son’s execution are now overseeing the murder and kidnapping of other young Jews. The same newspapers that, back then, minimized our suffering as understandable collateral in a complicated conflict continue to draw false equivalences and refuse to condemn the murderers for what they are. The same so-called defenders of human rights and dignity seem to extend sympathy to all but the targeted Jews.

You’d think that all this causes me nothing but anguish. But that’s not the case.

When I lost David, I swore to myself that his death shall not be in vain. That even though I cannot bring him back to me, hold him once more in my arms, tell him again how proud I am of him and how much I love him, I can—and will—not only hold the perpetrators and their helpers accountable, but also continue to warn the world about what happens when we let evil men do evil things without standing up for what’s right.

And the horrors of Oct. 7 reminded me that my work here is far from done.

I will continue to do whatever I can to remind anyone listening that Hamas is a murderous terrorist organization, not a legitimate national or religious group; that it is still holding American citizens hostage; and that it continues to murder innocent Israelis and Americans, just as it murdered my boy. And I will continue to remind them, too, that the Hamas terrorists who pull the trigger and plan attacks, are aided by men and women all over the world who raise funds, spread propaganda, and take other similar actions to support the killers in their work.

My goal is as simple as it is sacred: to make sure no other mother ever goes through the same ordeal as me. I can think of no more worthy thing to do with my remaining years, and, since Oct. 7, as I watched protesters cheering for Hamas in American cities and colleges, my task, alas, has grown urgent.