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Lucas Koerner
Lucas Koerner is an anti-Israel activist notorious for a 2011 incident where he was arrested and reportedly bit an Israeli police officer in Jerusalem.
Koerner has supported Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists and has compared Israel to Nazi Germany. Koerner has also referred to Israel as “a giant ghetto for world jewry.”
Koerner was a founder of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Tufts University (Tufts SJP) in 2010.
A Tufts SJP publication, published in 2013, documented (p.17) some of Koerner’s long history of anti-Israel activism, dating back to high school. Koerner consistently exploits his Jewish identity, to validate his demonization of Israel.
Koerner is affiliated with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Koerner helped organize Tufts SJP’s first annual Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) in 2012 and played a leading role in other Tufts SJP provocations until his graduation in 2014.
On March 7, 2012, Koerner was reportedly majoring in Sociology and Spanish.
As of July 2017, Koerner was a journalist and political analyst for venezuelaanalysis.com.
As of July 18, 2017, Koerner’s Twitter cover photo was an image of Israel’s security barrier.
On June 1, 2011, Koerner was detained by the Israeli police after reportedly harassing bystanders during a protest in Jerusalem. After refusing to relinquish his American passport for inspection, Koerner was arrested and subsequently bit an Israeli police officer, according to news reports.
One week after his arrest by Israeli police, the YouTube channel titled “palequity” posted a video showing Koerner harassing Israeli mounted policemen who were marshaling the annual Jerusalem Day parade. Another video showed Koerner waving his passport and refusing to allow police officers to examine it. The video also showed that when the police arrested Koerner, he actively resisted efforts to put him in a police vehicle. It took five policemen to remove Koerner from the scene.
At the rally, before his arrest, Koerner gave a speech to a videographer on the street. Koerner claimed (0:16) to speak on behalf of “world Jewry and all people of the world” and declared: “the world has decided” that “the [Palestinian] refugees...must all come home” and that Israel is “the pariah state” and “the rogue state.” During his speech, Koerner wore a matching keffiyeh and yarmulke, both emblazoned with Palestinian flags.
Koerner spent less than 48 hours in police custody and was released, after a judge declined to extend his detention. Koerner left Israel shortly after his release, upon advice from his lawyer — a court-appointed public defense attorney.
On June 30, 2011, three weeks after his arrest by Israeli police, Koerner said in a Palestine News Network interview he did “intend to return to Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories.” Koerner added: “How I will do this, I will not disclose at this time.”
In another video interview, published on YouTube on July 19, 2011, Koerner acknowledged (3:36) he was warned that if he ever returned to Israel, he would be “arrested and tried.” However, Koerner said: “I will try every means in my power to return and exercise my right to return.”
On July 21, 2014, Koerner tweeted a quote from an article titled “Palestine's ‘allies’ must stop condemning armed resistance.” The link featured a photo of a deceased Hamas terrorist’s funeral.
On August 1, 2014, Koerner tweeted a quote from an article he shared, which stated the author’s “unconditional support for Hamas.” The original Arabic article contained a photo of Hamas terrorists.
On August 7, 2014, Koerner tweeted in support of Ghassan Kanafani, a deceased leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
On July 25, 2014, Koerner — during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas — tweeted: “Gaza is a concentration camp.”
On an unspecified date in 2014 during OPE, Koerner gave an interview to Channel Islam International based in Cape Town, South Africa, which he later promoted on Twitter.
In the interview, Koerner called Gaza a “concentration camp” (8:40), as well as “the largest open-air prison on the planet” (8:30). Koerner also paraphrased discredited historian Ilan Pappé as saying: “This is an incremental genocide against the Palestinians” (9:10).
Koerner later added (9:16): “... the world should ... take action in the form of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and support the Palestinian resistance.”
On August 4, 2014, Koerner posted a photo on Instagram from an anti-Israel rally during OPE where he wrote: “#neveragainforanyone.”
The phrase “Never Again” is often deployed as a general declaration against genocide, invoking the Nazis’ war of extermination against the Jews.
On August 9, 2014, Koerner tweeted a quote from an article about Hamas-linked propagandist, Mads Gilbert. The article featured a video and a transcript of Gilbert saying (3:35): “In 1938, the Nazis called the Jews ‘Untermenschen,’ subhuman. Today, Palestinians in the West Bank, in Gaza, in the Diaspora are treated as Untermensch, as subhumans ...”
Gilbert has been banned indefinitely from entering Gaza through Israel because of his connections to the Hamas leadership.
On August 4, 2014, Koerner posted a photo to Instagram showing a sign reading “TAX DOLLARS FOR TERROR - THE IDF TARGETS CIVILIANS.” Koerner wrote “#endthegenocide #freepalestine” alongside the photo.
On July 28, 2014, Koerner posted a photo to Instagram of a woman holding a sign reading: “Zionism = Racism.”
On January 18, 2012, Koerner tweeted: “Zionism is internalized antijewish racism. Why else would you want to create a giant ghetto for world jewry?”
On April 25, 2014, Koerner was a leader of a Tufts SJP provocation labeling Israel’s creation a “catastrophe.”
On April 25, 2014, Tufts SJP staged a “die-in” next to an FOI event celebrating Israeli Independence Day. Hannah Freedman, a Tufts SJP activist, said that Tufts SJP “crashed” the event “with a memorial for al-Nakba.” The activists laid on red cloth meant to symbolize pools of blood.
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by drawing a comparison to the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”
On March 18, 2014, Koerner was a leader of an SJP rally inciting anti-Semitic violence.
On March 18, 2014, Tufts SJP members marched in support of SJP at Northeastern University (SJP Northeastern) after the group was suspended by the university for slipping mock eviction notices demonizing Israel under students’ doors. The marchers chanted a call for anti-Israel violence: “Long live the Intifada! Intifada, Intifada!”
The term “intifada” translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection” and carries the connotation of terrorist violence, including suicide bombings, hijackings, shootings and stabbings.
According to Tufts SJP activist Emma Brown, the marchers also called for Israel’s destruction, chanting: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free,” is a chant used [00:02:52] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel.
On March 5, 2014, Koerner led a Tufts SJP protest demonizing Israel.
On March 5, 2014, Tufts SJP carried out three anti-Israel provocations. First, Tufts SJP slipped leaflets into dorm rooms targeting the Jewish heritage program Birthright Israel.
Birthright Israel is a heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults from across the world.
Second, Tufts SJP slipped mock “demolition” notices into other dorm rooms, claiming that Israel had a “project of ethnic cleansing.” Third, Tufts SJP held a “mock annexation” that purported to show Israeli soldiers violently arresting Palestinians without cause.
On April 18, 2012, Koerner and Tufts SJP staged a walk-out of a talk by Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. One Tufts SJP member said that Israeli Independence equaled the “ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE,” while another held a sign reading: “WE STAND with the Irvine 11.”
The “Irvine 11” were a group of 11 University of California students, many of whom belonged to the Muslim Student Association (MSA), who were detained by police for disrupting a speech given by then-Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, in 2010. Ten of the students were charged with and convicted of two misdemeanors of “conspiring to disrupt – and then disrupting” Oren’s speech, and sentenced to three years of “informal probation.” The MSA was also suspended by the university.
On March 7, 2012, Koerner authored a Tufts Daily opinion piece where he claimed there was a “cult of Jewish exceptionalism” in Israel and that pro-Israel Jews have an “unabashed worship of Jewish privilege.” He wrote the article to promote Tufts SJP’s first annual Israeli Apartheid Week.
On February 29, 2012, Koerner was featured in a Tufts SJP video — which has since been taken down — where he led chants and held a sign reading “TEAR DOWN ALL WALLS END APARTHEID,” referring to Israel’s security barrier. The fence was built as a non-violent deterrent to Palestinian terrorist attacks like suicide bombings.
On August 9 and 12, 2014, Koerner tweeted twice in support of Steven Salaita, sharing articles that defended the professor.
In 2014, The University of Illinois (U of I) withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.”
A month later, Salaita tweeted, "Zionists: transforming ‘antisemitism’ from something horrible into something honorable since 1948." On July 8, 2014, he tweeted: "There's something profoundly sexual to the Zionist pleasure w/#Israel's aggression. Sublimation through bloodletting, a common perversion."
SJP is the leading 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, who has spread anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campus campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks and pushing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, and SJP chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for terrorists.
JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.
JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).
Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.”
JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP."
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish values.”
The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.
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 infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. 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 and pro-terror activism on campus.
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