Lara Langer Cohen

Overview

Lara Langer Cohen is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement who has demonized Israel and expressed support for anti-Israel activists. 

As of January 2020, Langer Cohen was an associate professor of English Literature at Swarthmore College (Swarthmore). 

Supporting BDS

As of March 2020, Langer Cohen was a signatory to a list of individuals and organizations endorsing the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).

On March 22, 2019, Langer Cohen tweeted: “#BDS tour of evangelical Christian colleges 2019! Let's take this puppy for a spin.”

In 2016, Langer Cohen signed an open letter calling for the academic boycott of Israel. 

The open letter was addressed to the Modern Language Association (MLA), “calling on the association to pass a resolution endorsing the boycott of Israeli academic institutions.”
On May 18, 2017, Langer Cohen tweeted support for the campaign to have MLA join the academic boycott of Israel, claiming: “The question of Palestine is...the litmus test of whether [the MLA] matters any more.”

Langer Cohen’s tweet linked to an article, penned by BDS leader David Lloyd, calling for the MLA to join the academic boycott of Israel. 

On December 10, 2016, Langer Cohen retweeted an article, published by anti-Israel activist David Palumbo-Liu, endorsing the MLA petition. 

On September 9, 2016, Langer Cohen tweeted another article in support of the MLA petition, published by BDS activist professor Fred Moten on September 7, 2019, on the The Modern Language Association and the Movement for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions website.

Moten belonged to the Members for Justice in Palestine within the Modern Language Association (MLA MJP) .

Langer Cohen was also an outspoken supporter of an American Studies Association (ASA)’s 2013 vote to boycott Israeli academic institutions. 

In a Swarthmore campus newspaper article chronicling the controversial vote, Langer Cohen was quoted as saying that “criticism of Israeli seems possible right now in a way that it wasn’t for a long time, between the momentum of the BDS movement and greater media attention to the violence against Palestinians.”

On December 25, 2013, Langer Cohen tweeted support of an article that criticized the “outpouring of furious responses” to the ASA’s decision to join the academic boycott of Israel.

Langer Cohen wrote: “Smart and moving piece by David Lloyd @elctrncintifada on the contradictions of ‘liberal Zionism’” and included a link to a piece published on the anti-Israel website Electronic Intifada (EI) by BDS leader David Llyod, titled: “The nightmare hidden within liberal Zionism.”

Demonizing Israel

On November 19, 2019, Langer Cohen tweeted a link to a BBC News article reporting about the establishment of Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and wrote: “Imagine peace not working when you are funding murder.”

On August 22, 2017, Langer Cohen tweeted: “Israel spying on emails of BDS supporters.” The tweet included a link to an El article alleging Israel “has started compiling and disseminating secretive blacklists” and was obtaining names “via illicit and illegal means.”

On April 11, 2017, Langer Cohen tweeted: “For the holiday of liberation, Israel seals Palestinian border. Go back to Torah school, Israel.”

Langer Cohen retweeted a claim, published on December 21, 2016, by anti-Israel activist and professor David Palumbo-Liu, claiming: “By Making Palestinian Villages Invisible, Google and Apple Maps Facilitate Their Demolition.”
Supporting Anti-Israel Activists

In February 2017, Langer Cohen drafted a petition and collected signatures in an effort to compel the Friends Central School (FCS), “an independent, coeducational Quaker day school,” to reschedule a canceled lecture by anti-Israel activist Sa’ed Atshan.

Atshan, a fellow professor at Swarthmore who has spread incitement of anti-Semitic violence, was denied entry into the West Bank when leading a trip he organized for Swarthmore students in his Israeli-Palestinian Conflict class. 

Atshan’s scheduled FCS lecture had been canceled amidst controversy surrounding his anti-Israel activism and his outspoken support for BDS. 

Following the controversy, Langer Cohen tweeted her support for Atshan on February 15, 2017, writing: “Friends’ Central alumni ask school to reinvite Palestinian speaker, reinstate teachers.”

Also on February 15, 2017, Langer Cohen tweeted about Atshan being disinvited from FCS, writing: “Esp. bc it's symptomatic of the problem at FCS: Zionists trying to hijack what it means to be Jewish.”

Langer Cohen’s tweet was in response to a tweet that said an American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) statement on the controversy had mistakenly conflated “Jews and Zionists.” The AFSC is an anti-Israel Quaker organization that promotes BDS.

On February 16, 2017 Langer Cohen tweeted a quote from an editorial in Swarthmore’s campus newspaper, writing: “We...support Atshan at a time when he is on the receiving end of misinformation and silencing.”

Langer Cohen signed a petition published on August 21, 2014, by the BDS movement titled:“A Call to People of Conscience Not to Speak at the University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Until Chancellor Wise Honor [sic.] the Contract to Hire Professor Steven Salaita.”

Langer Cohen again expressed her support for Salaita in a tweet, published on April 25, 2017. Langer Cohen’s tweet linked to an article Salaita wrote and published in Mondoweiss and referred to it as a “brilliant essay...on ‘free speech.’” 

In the article, Salaita claimed: “Suppressing Palestine is a transnational industry” and “Most commentators…are too scared to name Zionism as a problem.” Salaita also alleged: “This suppression goes beyond campus, too, though its tentacles manage to slither into our well-manicured spaces.” 

In 2014, The University of Illinois 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.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

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

Twitter:https://twitter.com/LaraLangerCohen

University Website:https://www.swarthmore.edu/profile/lara-cohen