Brooke Goldstein

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Brooke Goldstein
Education McGill University (BA)
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (JD)
Occupation(s)Founder and Executive Director of The Lawfare Project
Notable work The Making of A Martyr (2006 film)
Lawfare: The War Against Free Speech (2011 book)

Brooke Goldstein is a human rights attorney. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Lawfare Project. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Goldstein was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is a graduate of McGill University and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. [2]

Her grandfather was a commander in a unit of Polish partisans that fought against the Nazis. [3]

Career

The Making of A Martyr

CNN anchor Carol Costello describes Goldstein as "a woman on a mission" who traveled to the West Bank, "as a young law student," to film the 2006 documentary film The Making of A Martyr . [4] Goldstein produced and directed the film about a Palestinian sixteen-year-old, Hussam Abdo, who was stopped at an Israeli border checkpoint when guards found live explosives wrapped around his body. Goldstein argues that Palestinian activists, by encouraging suicide bombing, abuse the rights of Palestinian children. [2] [4] Goldstein calls the use of children as suicide bombers, "the intentional murder of innocent children." [4]

Children's Rights Institute

Continuing her work from the film, in 2007 Goldstein founded the Children's Rights Institute, "a non-profit organization that tracks and legally combats violations of children's basic human rights, with a special focus on child suicide-homicide bombers, child soldiers, and the phenomenon of human shields." [5]

The Lawfare Project

Goldstein founded The Lawfare Project in 2010, [6] an American nonprofit advocacy organization based in New York City which serves as a legal think tank and litigation fund to uphold the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and pro-Israel community worldwide. [7] [8]

Goldstein co-authored the 2011 book Lawfare: The War Against Free Speech: A First Amendment Guide for Reporting in an Age of Islamist Lawfare. The book offers advice to journalists about how to protect themselves against what Goldstein and Meyer describe as "'Islamist lawfare,' the use of the law as a weapon of war to silence and punish free speech about militant Islam, terrorism and its sources of financing." [9]

Prior to the Lawfare Project, Goldstein worked for the Middle East Forum for two years, directing the organization's "Legal Project" program, "which arranges pro-bono and reduced rate council for people wrongfully sued for speaking about issues of national security," particularly terrorism and Islamic extremism. [5]

Other activities

Goldstein has been a regular guest on Fox News, [10] and is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. [11] [12]

Related Research Articles

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Baruch Kopel Goldstein was an Israeli-American mass murderer, religious extremist, and physician who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an incident of Jewish terrorism. Goldstein was a supporter of the Kach, a religious Zionist party that the United States, the European Union and other countries designate as a terrorist organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmed Yassin</span> Palestinian political and religious leader (1937–2004)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Female suicide bomber</span> Woman who carries out a suicide attack

Female suicide bombers are women who intend to do suicide attack, wherein the bomber kills herself while simultaneously killing targeted people. Suicide bombers are normally viewed as male political radicals but since the 1960s female suicide attacks have been on the rise. Through 1985–2006, 15% of all suicide attacks were conducted by female suicide bombers. There are many organizations, such as Boko Haram, ISIS, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, that recently started using women as tools in their attacks, since they are normally viewed as less of a threat than their male counterparts. This includes women having the element of surprise, a hesitancy to search females, increased publicity for female suicide bombing attacks, and the female stereotype as non-violent.

As part of the Arab–Israeli conflict, especially during the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005, Palestinian militant groups used children for suicide bombings. Minors were recruited to attack Israeli targets, both military and civilian. This deliberate involvement of children in armed conflict was condemned by international human rights organizations.

Hussam Muhammad Bilal Abdo is a Palestinian from the Masahiya area of Nablus, who, as a teenager, made international headlines on 24 March 2004, when he entered the Hawara Checkpoint in the West Bank, with eight kilos (18 lbs) of explosives strapped to his body as part of a suicide attack attempt.

Ayat al-Akhras was the third and youngest Palestinian female suicide bomber who, at age 18, killed herself and two Israeli civilians on March 29, 2002, by detonating explosives belted to her body. The killings gained widespread international attention due to Ayat's age and gender and the fact that one of the victims was also a teenage girl. The killings led U.S. President George W. Bush to observe: “When an 18-year-old Palestinian girl is induced to blow herself up and in the process kills a 17-year-old Israeli girl, the future itself is dying; the future of the Palestinian people and the future of the Israeli people.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cave of the Patriarchs massacre</span> 1994 shooting massacre in Hebron

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian political violence</span> Violence with political ends in the State of Palestine

Palestinian political violence refers to actions carried out with the intent to achieve political objectives that can involve the use of force by Palestinians, often in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Common objectives of political violence by Palestinian nationalists include self-determination in and sovereignty over Palestine, or the "liberation of Palestine" and recognition of a Palestinian state, either in place of both Israel and the Palestinian territories, or solely in the Palestinian territories. Several seek the destruction of the State of Israel. More limited goals include the release of Palestinian prisoners or the Palestinian right of return. Other motivations include personal grievances, trauma or revenge.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israeli demolition of Palestinian property</span> War method used by the Israelis against Palestinians

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Istishhad is the Arabic word for "martyrdom", "death of a martyr", or "heroic death"..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shurat HaDin</span> Tel Aviv-based Israeli legal advocacy group

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suicide attack</span> Violent attack in which the attacker accepts their own death

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Events in the year 2004 in Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Children in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict</span> Impact of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on minors

Children in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict refers to the impact of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on minors in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Laurel Holliday, in her 1999 book Children of Israel/Palestine, writes that two "ethnically distinct peoples – both Palestinians and Israeli Jews – lay claim to the very same sand, stone, rivers, vegetation, seacoast, and mountains" and that the stories she presents show that "Israeli and Palestinian children grow up feeling that they are destined for conflict with their neighbors".

al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Coalition of Palestinian militant groups

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The Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund is a fund operated by the Palestinian Authority (PA) that pays monthly cash stipends to the families of Palestinians killed, injured, or imprisoned while carrying out politically motivated violence against Israel. The fund also makes disbursements to innocent bystanders killed during violent events and Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails for ordinary crimes. In 2016, the PA paid out about NIS 1.1 billion in stipends and other benefits to the families of so-called “martyrs”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawfare Project</span> American think tank and litigation fund

The Lawfare Project is an American non-profit think tank and litigation fund that works to protect the human and civil rights of Jewish and pro-Israel communities worldwide. The Project funds legal actions to protect free speech and civil rights by challenging anti-Semitism and discrimination against Jews.

References

  1. "Brooke Goldstein Executive Director, The Lawfare Project". Israeli American Council. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  2. 1 2 Herschthal, Eric (24 November 2006). "'If I Died As A Martyr, I'd Go To Paradise'". New York Jewish Week. ProQuest   362534190.
  3. "Think-tank to sue Google, Twitter and Yahoo over Holocaust denial content". The Jewish Chronicle. February 20, 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 Costello, Carol (29 June 2007). "Thwarted Terror Attack in London". CNN. ProQuest   466927596.
  5. 1 2 "Lawyer advocates for Palestinian child suicide bombers". Canadian Jewish News. April 16, 2012.
  6. "Groundbreaking Lawfare Project Launched". Algemeiner. March 16, 2010.
  7. "Lawfare Project threatens suit against Yahoo, Google and Twitter in Spain for proliferation of anti-Semitism". JNS. February 21, 2018.
  8. "Groups accuse PFLP-affiliated UK NGO of being antisemitic". The Jerusalem Post. June 11, 2018.
  9. Kittrie, Orde (2016). Lawfare: Law as a Weapon of War. Oxford University Press. p. 9. ISBN   978-0190263577.
  10. "'Zioness' Group Adds Pro-Israel Voice To Racial Justice Marches — And Sows Bitter Controversy". The Forward. October 5, 2017.
  11. "Membership Roster". Council on Foreign Relations.
  12. "Staff Bios". The Lawfare Project.