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Months later, the Al-Arian verdict opens new wounds

An Israeli family who wanted the jury to hear how they lost a daughter in a Palestinian terror attack never got the chance.

By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN
Published January 31, 2006

	[Times photo: John Pendygraft]
	Mariam and Isaac Ben-Ishai and their daughter Chana, 12, hold a portrait of Shoshana Ben-Ishai, who was 16 in 2001 when she was killed by an Islamic Jihad gunman.

JERUSALEM - Last summer, Miriam Ben-Ishai planned to testify at the trial of Sami Al-Arian, accused of financing and promoting terrorism by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

She wanted to tell jurors how she felt four years ago when she heard that an Islamic Jihad gunman had killed her 16-year-old daughter Shoshana.

How Shoshana's brother, then 13, was so devastated he never went back to school.

How it hurts to attend the weddings of Shoshana's friends - now all grown.

Miriam Ben-Ishai was so determined to tell a jury her story, she put off her vacation so she could attend the trial in Tampa.

Then she got a call saying she would not be needed as a witness. Al-Arian had admitted his guilt, the Ben-Ishais say they were told.

Not until Jan. 22 - nearly two months after the trial ended - did Miriam Ben-Ishai learn that almost the opposite was true: Jurors acquitted the former University of South Florida professor on most charges and leaned heavily toward acquittal on the others. And she heard the news not from federal prosecutors in Tampa, but from a St. Petersburg Times reporter.

For several seconds, Ben-Ishai sat silently. Then:

"I did not know until you just told me. What can I say? It is very upsetting. Because he did not pull the trigger doesn't mean he's not guilty."

It is unclear who might have given the Ben-Ishais the impression Al-Arian had confessed. Israeli police, who helped the FBI, said they could not talk about the Al-Arian case because it is an American legal matter. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa did not respond to requests for comment.

The Ben-Ishais are no longer confused about the trial, but they are angry. They are convinced the jury might have decided differently if it had been allowed to hear about the family's grief. And they wonder how the U.S. government could have lost such an important case.

"They did a sloppy job," said Isaac Ben-Ishai, Shoshana's father. "It seems the trial was not prepared right. I am very disappointed they spent so much money and two years and this is what happened."

In announcing Al-Arian's indictment in 2003, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft called him "North American leader" of one of the world's "most violent terrorist organizations." Ashcroft named two American citizens among the scores killed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Alisa Flatow, 20, who died in a 1995 bus bombing, and Shoshana Ben-Ishai.

Born in New York, Shoshana was 4 when her parents moved to a Jewish settlement in the predominantly Palestinian West Bank. She went to an Orthodox girls school in Jerusalem, where she was a good student known for her sunny, helpful nature.

On Nov. 4, 2001, Shoshana was riding the No. 25 bus home from school when a young Palestinian, Khatem Al-Shewiki, opened fire. He killed Shoshana and a teenage boy and injured 45 others before he was shot dead by a police officer.

Miriam Ben-Ishai heard a bulletin on the radio about a bus attack and dialed Shoshana's mobile phone. There was no answer. Frantically, the Ben-Ishais called every hospital before locating their daughter at Shaare Zedek Medical Center - the same place where Miriam works as a nurse.

She found Shoshana in the morgue, wrapped in a sheet and lying on a piece of wood on the floor.

"I kissed her and she was still warm. She still had some color in her face," her mother said. "She looked liked an angel."

Violence between Israelis and Palestinians continued. It wasn't long before most forgot about the shooting on the No. 25 bus.

Not U.S. and Israeli authorities, however.

A few months after Shoshana's death, Isaac Ben-Ishai said, FBI agents interviewed him and his wife. They were building the case against Al-Arian, who had been under scrutiny since a documentary and a 1995 Tampa Tribune story raised questions about terrorist ties to a think tank he ran at USF. The investigation picked up steam when the Patriot Act, passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, cleared the way for more sharing of information between intelligence agencies and law enforcement.

"It seemed like a miracle they find somebody in Tampa who supported terrorism," said Isaac Ben-Ishai, 49, who owns a printing business. "This is the worst - Americans give him (Al-Arian) an opportunity to teach in college and he's doing terrorism in secret behind the scene."

Ben-Ishai said FBI agents visited the couple again in early 2003, about the time Ashcroft announced Al-Arian's indictment. Last February, Tampa's FBI office notified them by mail they were among potential witnesses in the trial due to start last spring.

Prosecutors wanted Miriam to testify because "she speak well in English and this is good for the jury to hear" about the family's suffering, said her Israeli-born husband, who is not as fluent.

Miriam, 47, had planned to use her vacation to visit her ailing father in New York. But she kept putting it off as the trial was delayed, finally starting June 6.

Then someone - the Ben-Ishais don't recall who or exactly when - told them Al-Arian "admitted being guilty" and Miriam would not have to testify.

The Ben-Ishais' lack of familiarity with legal terms could have caused the confusion. Soon after the trial began, lawyers for Al-Arian and three co-defendants agreed to a "stipulation of fact": Shoshana was killed by "a person associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad."

But prosecutors and defense attorneys also agreed Al-Arian and the others "did not personally participate in the actual execution of overt acts."

The jury still had to decide whether Al-Arian and his co-defendants had provided support for the killers.

On Dec. 6, jurors acquitted two defendants on all counts. They returned not guilty verdicts on several charges against Al-Arian and Hatem Fariz, and deadlocked on several other charges against the two.

"The evidence making these guys terrorists just wasn't there," one juror said later.

The Ben-Ishais are upset no one from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa called to let them know the trial had ended. Though the case was big news in the United States, there was little coverage in the Israeli media.

"Most people, when I mentioned it, didn't know anything about it," Miriam Ben-Ishai said.

* * *

Much has happened since Shoshana's murder.

Nine months later, Israeli soldiers blew up her killer's home in the West Bank. Relatives were told they had 10 minutes to get out, a brother says.

Islamic Jihad gave Al-Shewiki's mother 8,000 Jordanian dinars - about $8,500. The Palestinian Authority paid for part of the family's new home, built next to the old one. The living room is bare of decor except for a large framed poster honoring Al-Shewiki's "martyrdom."

Islamic Jihad is still headed by Ramadan Shallah, a former USF adjunct professor who directed Al-Arian's think tank. It is the most militant Palestinian organization. While Hamas has observed a truce with Israel and won a landslide victory in last week's Palestinian parliamentary election, Islamic Jihad has continued its attacks, including a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Jan. 19 that wounded 30.

Since the shooting, the school Shoshana attended has moved to a safer location where students don't have to ride a bus that passes so close to Palestinian neighborhoods. Shoshana's photo hangs prominently in the school lobby.

Initially, enough money was donated in her memory to help several needy students. Most of the money is gone, but the school still holds a memorial service every Nov. 4.

Last year's service had special significance for the Ben-Ishais because it was the final one with girls who knew their daughter. All of her classmates have graduated, and several are married. Her two sisters were bridesmaids at the wedding of her best friend, Ilana.

"Seeing her friends, it's a good in a way. It's some sort of connection to somebody who knew Shoshi," her mother said. "On the other hand, it's very painful."

Shoshana's four youngest brothers and sisters are "more or less okay," but have emotional ups and downs. Yaakov, the brother closest in age to Shoshana, was so traumatized by her death he has rarely left his room in four years. He is now 17, and the Ben-Ishais have considered moving back to New York where a rabbi they know has offered to help him find work or resume his schooling.

"Our life has changed completely," Miriam Ben-Ishai said. "We don't live the same, every time something happens it's not complete because Shoshi is not here. What happened to my son only makes it worse. Not only my daughter was killed, my son was killed. He's alive but he's not alive."

If Al-Arian is retried on the deadlocked charges, a new jury should hear all this, Isaac Ben-Ishai says. He can't understand why prosecutors didn't call his wife to testify.

"The jury is important - they see a professor, they don't see the suffering of the family. Let's say my wife will come. They will hear a story that could change their minds."

--Times staff writer Meg Laughlin contributed to this report. Susan Taylor Martin can be contacted at susan@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 31, 2006, 00:31:49]