Liora Cohen-Fraade
Overview
Liora Cohen-Fraade [Liora Abigail Cohen-Fraade] has expressed hatred of Israel and opposed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, which includes equating Israel with Nazi Germany.Cohen-Fraade has expressed support for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). She is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Cohen-Fraade was a member of the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law (CUNY Law) chapter of the Jewish Law Students Association (CUNY JLSA) during the 2020-2021 academic year. CUNY JLSA is also an anti-Israel group.
Cohen-Fraade worked as a 2021 “Justice Fellow” with the Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC), which is described [00:04:51] as “a two-year fellowship for recent law graduates.”
As of March 2023, Cohen-Fraade was placed [00:05:01] by the fellowship to work [00:01:30] as an immigration attorney for the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) in Laredo, Texas.
As of March 2024, Cohen-Fraade was still listed on the RAICES website as working for the organization.
Cohen-Fraade was listed online as having passed the New York State bar exam in February 2022.
Cohen-Fraade graduated [00:02:29] from CUNY Law with a JD in 2021.
Cohen-Fraade attended [00:02:29] Franklin & Marshall College (F&M), from which she reportedly graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and international studies in 2014.
As of March 2023, Cohen-Fraade was located [00:01:34] in San Antonio, Texas.
Hatred of Israel
In February 2020, Cohen-Fraade signed a letter titled: “CUNY Law Student groups, Students, Alumni and Faculty stand with SJP and Palestinian students.”The letter claimed: “A subset of Zionist activists choose to weaponize the genuine threats of anti-Semitism elsewhere in our society as a tactic to repress activism and harass and threaten Palestinian students and Muslim students more broadly.”
Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.
The letter was released after a Jewish student at CUNY Law wrote an op-ed about her experiences with anti-Semitism on campus. That student later reportedly dropped out of CUNY Law after harassment she faced from her op-ed and the anti-Israel letter.
On May 25, 2021, Cohen-Fraade signed a statement by the CUNY anti-Israel group CUNY4Palestine that was published by the anti-Israel website Mondoweiss.
The statement said: “We condemn the brutal bombing of Gaza…We condemn the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah…We oppose the raiding of the al-Aqsa mosque…”
In May 2021, Palestinian violence erupted in anticipation of an Israel High Court ruling on eviction proceedings concerning over 70 Palestinian tenants illegally residing in Jewish-owned properties in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.
The statement also claimed that the blockade of Gaza was “illegal.” The statement further described Israel as a “settler colonial state” established through “the Nakba.”
Israel and Egypt implemented a United Nations-approved [pp. 39–41] joint blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2011 to stop Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets.
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
In June 2023, Cohen-Fraade signed a statement titled: “Over 400 CUNY Law Alumni Stand with Fatima.” The statement compared the “harm and violence caused” by American police to “Israel’s violent occupation and apartheid system.”
The statement defended Fatima Mohammed for her CUNY Law commencement speech in May 2023, where she promoted violence, spread hatred of Israel and the police, honored terrorist financiers and promoted the BDS movement. Mohammed is an activist with the pro-terror group Within Our Lifetime (WOL), where she has glorified terrorists and called for Israel’s destruction. The CUNY Board of Trustees condemned Mohammed’s speech.
As of July 2023, Cohen-Fraade had signed a WOL statement originally published on May 31, 2023. The statement was titled: “Defend CUNY Organizing, Stand for Palestine: #WeStandWithFatima.”
The statement said: “CUNY School of Law alumna Fatima is under attack after delivering a principled speech against zionist settler-colonialism…”
Opposing the IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism
In April 2021, Cohen-Fraade signed an open letter titled: “Open Letter to the CUNY Community Re: USS IHRA resolution.”The letter stated: “We, the Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA) at CUNY Law, and our allies, write to convey our concern and alarm over the recent introduction on 3/14/21 of the University Student Senate (USS) Resolution ‘Condemning Anti-Semitism and Supporting the CUNY Jewish Community.’ We respectfully oppose this resolution, and urge the USS and our CUNY community to do the same. This resolution adopts a definition of antisemitism put forth by the the [sic] International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).”
The IHRA also highlights another form of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
On April 11, 2021, The CUNY University Student Senate (USS) posted a Zoom meeting on Facebook where they debated adopting two different definitions of anti-Semitism.
Cohen-Fraade commented on the video: “The JLSA definition makes me feel safer as a Jew as it allows me to voice my political beliefs against Israel and the occupation without repercussion and allows my Palestinian peers to do so as well. It then allows to address anti-semitism of white suprematists [sic] in this country.”
The JLSA definition of anti-Semitism was presented to the CUNY USS as part of a larger resolution submitted by CUNY JLSA and CUNY Law SJP. The resolution claimed [p. 3]: “antisemitism is not an exceptional form of bigotry.”
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/liora.cohenfraadeInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/lioracf [Private]
Threads:https://www.threads.net/@lioracf [Private]
