Rachel Weber
Overview
Rachel Weber [Rachel Lynn Weber] is a university lecturer who refused to condemn Hamas terrorists’ slaughter of over 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023. Weber also provided [00:01:24] legal services for a violent anti-Israel student.The incidents occurred after Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The terror attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
As of November 2023, Weber was providing legal services for a University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) student who violently attacked a Jewish student on campus during a peace walk that called for the return of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
As of the same date, Weber reportedly provided legal assistance and distributed bail money to anti-Israel activists charged with trespassing at UMass Amherst in October 2023.
Weber has also demonized Israel and spread hatred of the police.
As of October 2023, Weber was an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in Western Massachusetts and a chapter leader since 2019.
As of October 2023, Weber’s website said she was a member of the anti-Israel National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and a partner of Palestine Legal.
In October 2023, Weber was listed as a lecturer in the Social Thought and Political Economy (STPEC) program in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences at UMass Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts.
As of the same date, Weber ran the Law Office of Rachel Weber since 2017 and has been a practicing trial attorney in Massachusetts since 2008. Weber described herself on her professional website as “an experienced social justice lawyer who practices: Criminal defense / Appeals / Civil rights litigation.”
As of November 2023, Weber was listed on the Massachusetts Board of Bar’s website with an active attorney license. Weber board of bar overseers number was 674057.
Weber’s website said she “went to law school at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA.”
In response [00:00:14] to another student who asked if Weber believed the Hamas attack was “terrorism to begin with,” Weber laughed and avoided answering the question.
Weber then said [00:00:25]: "Something that’s in the Jewish Voice for Peace statement about this that really resonated with me is that reality all begins on when you start the clock. If you start the clock on Saturday [October 7], reality is going to look one way. If you start the clock, you know, like weeks prior, it’s going to sound a different way.”
Later, Weber said [00:02:12]: “So, first, I have to constantly, you know, assure that… ‘I don’t support Israel. I don’t support Israel.’”
During the October 13, 2023 rally, students held [third photo] signs that said: “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and [00:01:02]: “Boycott Israeli apartheid.” Also at the rally, a speaker claimed [00:00:45] that Palestinians “resist over 75 years of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid.”
As of November 2023, Weber was providing legal services for a University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) student who violently attacked a Jewish student on campus during a peace walk that called for the return of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
As of the same date, Weber reportedly provided legal assistance and distributed bail money to anti-Israel activists charged with trespassing at UMass Amherst in October 2023.
Weber has also demonized Israel and spread hatred of the police.
As of October 2023, Weber was an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in Western Massachusetts and a chapter leader since 2019.
As of October 2023, Weber’s website said she was a member of the anti-Israel National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and a partner of Palestine Legal.
In October 2023, Weber was listed as a lecturer in the Social Thought and Political Economy (STPEC) program in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences at UMass Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts.
As of the same date, Weber ran the Law Office of Rachel Weber since 2017 and has been a practicing trial attorney in Massachusetts since 2008. Weber described herself on her professional website as “an experienced social justice lawyer who practices: Criminal defense / Appeals / Civil rights litigation.”
As of November 2023, Weber was listed on the Massachusetts Board of Bar’s website with an active attorney license. Weber board of bar overseers number was 674057.
Weber’s website said she “went to law school at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA.”
10/13/2023 - Refusing to Condemn Hamas Terrorism
On October 13, 2023, when asked by a student on camera during an anti-Israel rally if she would condemn Hamas’s terror attacks on Israeli civilians, Weber stated [00:01:14]: “It’s not a yes or no question.”In response [00:00:14] to another student who asked if Weber believed the Hamas attack was “terrorism to begin with,” Weber laughed and avoided answering the question.
Weber then said [00:00:25]: "Something that’s in the Jewish Voice for Peace statement about this that really resonated with me is that reality all begins on when you start the clock. If you start the clock on Saturday [October 7], reality is going to look one way. If you start the clock, you know, like weeks prior, it’s going to sound a different way.”
Later, Weber said [00:02:12]: “So, first, I have to constantly, you know, assure that… ‘I don’t support Israel. I don’t support Israel.’”
During the October 13, 2023 rally, students held [third photo] signs that said: “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and [00:01:02]: “Boycott Israeli apartheid.” Also at the rally, a speaker claimed [00:00:45] that Palestinians “resist over 75 years of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid.”
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.
The modern State of Israel was founded 75 years earlier, in 1948.
Hamas intentionally targeted youth centers and elementary schools to execute and kidnap children. They also took stimulant drugs to give added energy to murder and maim. Nazis also took drugs during World War II to fuel their anti-Semitic massacres.
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation. Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
As of November 10, 2023, over 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.
As of December 25, 2023, Hamas had fired over 10,600 missiles from Gaza at Israeli communities, with Hamas claiming 5,000 the day it launched the attack. While Hamas was the main group involved, members of other terror groups also joined in the atrocities.
Many Palestinian civilians, including women and children, also participated in the attack. In several instances, Gazans who worked in the targeted Israeli communities gave intelligence to Hamas on where to strike.
In a December 2023 poll, 57% of Gazans and 82% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported the terror attacks. 42% of Gazans were supportive of Hamas rule, up from 38% before the attacks, and 44% in the West Bank supported Hamas, up from 12%.
Hamas began by launching thousands of rockets at Israel and using motorized paragliders “to infiltrate Israeli territory and secure terrain.” Terrorist ground forces destroyed parts of the border fence with Gaza, murdering and kidnapping soldiers.
Terrorists then turned their attention to 22 communities around Gaza, where they went house to house to savagely murder, mutilate and kidnap anyone they found. They executed children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children.
Terrorists beheaded children and babies, and massacred entire families, burning some alive who hid in their homes. Hamas terrorists kicked around the heads of beheaded victims like soccer balls. Israelis between the ages of three and 85 were kidnapped and taken forcibly to Gaza. Hamas has not allowed the Red Cross access to the hostages.
Over 360 unarmed young men and women were surrounded and slaughtered at one music festival alone. Bodies were publicly desecrated, with some dragged through the streets of Gaza, then beheaded.
Women were raped next to the bodies of dead friends. Some were raped and then shot in the head. Others, including young girls, were raped and murdered or mutilated in other ways. Israeli officials opened an unprecedented investigation into the widespread sexual assault. Forensic analysis of corpses showed evidence of torture and rape.
Hamas terrorists said they were given explicit orders to carry out the atrocities, including chopping off legs and raping the corpses of murdered victims.
Hamas intentionally targeted youth centers and elementary schools to execute and kidnap children. They also took stimulant drugs to give added energy to murder and maim. Nazis also took drugs during World War II to fuel their anti-Semitic massacres.
The atrocities were acknowledged as the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, including by U.S. President Joe Biden, who also compared Hamas to ISIS. Hamas attacked on the annual holiday of Simchat Torah, which that year was on Shabbat, the weekly Jewish Sabbath.
The Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians are crimes against humanity according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The mass murder generated great sympathy for Israel from many countries but led to countless celebrations among Palestinians and anti-Israel organizations in America that back the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Hamas called the October 7, 2023 terror attacks “Al-Aqsa Flood,” a reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before Israel was founded in 1948. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
Providing Legal Services for a Violent Anti-Israel Student
As of November 2023, Weber represented [00:01:24] violent anti-Israel protester Efe Ercelik after he was arrested for assaulting a Jewish student during a November 2023 demonstration at UMass Amherst calling for the release of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.According to a reported statement of facts, Ercelik aggressively approached a Jewish student, calling him a “‘little bitch boy,’ telling him to go home, and referring to him as a Zionist.” Ercelik also “punched the student and shoved and kicked his stomach area before ripping a small Israeli flag that the Jewish student had been holding.” Ercelik then “took a knife and stabbed the flag, spitting, ripping and throwing it in the trash. He continued to stand outside the building and flip the student off until the police arrived.”
A witness reportedly “attempted to break up the attack but she was struck in the hand by Ercelik’s foot.” Ercelik was reportedly charged with “two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; larceny, vandalism; assault and battery; assault and battery with intent to intimidate; and disorderly conduct.”
Later, Ercelik was reportedly released on $250 bail on the condition that he surrender his passports, make no contact with named victims, stay 50 yards away from the victims and stay off of the UMass campus. As of November 2023, Ercelik’s next court date was scheduled for January 16, 2024.
In addition to providing legal defense for Ercelik, Weber reportedlyrepresented 57 anti-Israel activists arrested for trespassing during another anti-Israel rally at UMass Amherst in October 2023.
Demonizing Israel
On May 12, 2021, during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against Hamas, Weber tweeted: “if you fight for
-racial justice
-indigenous sovereignty
-fair trials
-freedom of speech
-freedom of religion
-prison abolition
-climate justice
-queer liberation
-the end of apartheid
-the right of kids to live/play/go to school
...you should be fighting for Palestine.”
On the same thread, Weber tweeted: “and add to list: disability justice, food sovereignty, freedom of movement, the end of torture, collective bargaining, refugee rights, medical equity, farmers rights, participatory democracy, and more…”
In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.
On May 14, 2021, on the day that Israel celebrated its independence, Weber tweeted: “Nakba 73 & #SaveSheikhJarrah -” and added a map that showed “Actions & Rallies for Palestine” throughout America.
-racial justice
-indigenous sovereignty
-fair trials
-freedom of speech
-freedom of religion
-prison abolition
-climate justice
-queer liberation
-the end of apartheid
-the right of kids to live/play/go to school
...you should be fighting for Palestine.”
On the same thread, Weber tweeted: “and add to list: disability justice, food sovereignty, freedom of movement, the end of torture, collective bargaining, refugee rights, medical equity, farmers rights, participatory democracy, and more…”
In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.
On May 14, 2021, on the day that Israel celebrated its independence, Weber tweeted: “Nakba 73 & #SaveSheikhJarrah -” and added a map that showed “Actions & Rallies for Palestine” throughout America.
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 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.
Weber retweeted a February 1, 2021 tweet that said: “Before & after” to a graphic whose second image said: “NO POLICE. NO ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].”
Weber retweeted an April 13, 2021 tweet that claimed the police was the institution that proved “itself fatally racist everyday.”
Weber’s defense of the panel reportedly took place after three students sued to prevent the event from happening, arguing “it was anti-Semitic and posed a threat to Jewish students on campus.”
Roger Waters is a world-famous musician and BDS activist who has compared Israel to Nazi Germany. He has also been accused of spreading anti-Semitism at his concerts.
Facebook 2:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100065262890114
Twitter:https://twitter.com/legalsteagle
University Website:https://www.umass.edu/stpec/stpec-instructors
Professional Website:https://rweberlaw.com/
Hatred of the Police
On January 18, 2021, Weber tweeted: “any resources that empower cops or prosecutors will be used to terrorize BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and People of Color] communities. that's why the police exist.”Weber retweeted a February 1, 2021 tweet that said: “Before & after” to a graphic whose second image said: “NO POLICE. NO ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].”
Weber retweeted an April 13, 2021 tweet that claimed the police was the institution that proved “itself fatally racist everyday.”
Anti-Israel Activism (JVP, SJP)
In May 2019, Weber defended [00:00:06] a panel on UMass Amherst that featured Roger Waters, Linda Sarsour and anti-Israel professor Marc Lamont Hill. The event was organized by JVP and the UMass Amherst chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).Weber’s defense of the panel reportedly took place after three students sued to prevent the event from happening, arguing “it was anti-Semitic and posed a threat to Jewish students on campus.”
Roger Waters is a world-famous musician and BDS activist who has compared Israel to Nazi Germany. He has also been accused of spreading anti-Semitism at his concerts.
Anti-Israel agitator Linda Sarsour frequently uses the word “Zionist” as a pejorative and has tweeted that “nothing is creepier than Zionism.” She has aligned with noted anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, dismissed [00:07:45] those who see her alignment with Farrakhan as problematic and slammed the “Jewish Media” for calling attention to it.
JVP
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 value.”
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.”
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/rachel.weber.96Facebook 2:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100065262890114
Twitter:https://twitter.com/legalsteagle
University Website:https://www.umass.edu/stpec/stpec-instructors
Professional Website:https://rweberlaw.com/
Videos
4 videos
Photos & Screenshots
39 images
Infamous Quotes
“I don’t support Israel. I don’t support Israel.”
“any resources that empower cops or prosecutors will be used to terrorize BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and People of Color] communities. that's why the police exist.”
