Suing Organizers and Funders of the Gaza Flotilla

Posted by Jamie Glazov on Jun 9th, 2011

Jamie Glazov is Frontpage Magazine’s editor. He holds a Ph.D. in History with a specialty in Russian, U.S. and Canadian foreign policy. He is the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling, United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror. His new book is Showdown With Evil. He can be reached at jamieglazov11@gmail.com.

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Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Neal Sher, an attorney practicing in New York City. Along with Ed Morgan, a prominent Toronto barrister and law professor, he is presently representing Cherna Rosenberg, who has been subjected to the mortar attacks from Gaza into Sderot.

Previously, Sher was the Director the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which investigated and prosecuted Nazi criminals in the U.S.  In that capacity, he was responsible for bringing many dozens of prosecutions and for barring former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim from coming to this country. He also served as the National Executive Director of AIPAC and was the President of the American Section of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists.

Recently, Sher has initiated two lawsuits on behalf of Jewish students at U of C, Berkeley and York University in Toronto who had been subjected to anti-Semitic harassment and bullying groups seeking to denigrate Israel and her supporters. It has been charged that the administrations at these schools failed to take adequate measure to prevent these incidents and to protect the students.

FP: Neal Sher, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Tell us about this suit that you are filing on behalf of Cherna Rosenberg. What is going on?

Sher: Nice to be back with Frontpage Magazine.

Cherna Rosenberg, a citizen of both Canada and Israel, filed this ground-breaking case in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto against the Canadian Boat to Gaza and Alternatives International. These groups raise funds for and provide material support to Hamas, which governs and controls Gaza and which has been declared to be a terrorist group by the government of Canada, as well as the U.S.

Ms. Rosenberg, along with the other residents of Sderot, has been subjected to and has suffered from the indiscriminate shelling of that Israeli city by Hamas.

The Canadian Boat to Gaza is part of the “Freedom Flotilla II” group, an assortment of coalitions from various countries which are attempting to organize, fund, and supply ships to breach the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and directly provide support to Gaza. It is committed to breaking the Israeli naval blockade and supporting the Hamas rulers of Gaza. The Canadian Boat’s raison d’être is to aid and abet the terrorist organization that rules Gaza.   Alternatives International is a self-professed fundraiser and trustee for the Canadian Boat. It provides financial management for the enterprise and assists in the financing of the terrorist-supporting Canadian Boat project.

Ms. Rosenberg has lived in Sderot, Israel and endured the constant and relentless mortar attacks emanating from Gaza. The Hamas terror group brazenly has taken responsibility for these shillings.  During these terrifying attacks, Ms. Rosenberg was forced to seek shelter, along with members of her family and, like other victims of these wanton attacks, has been traumatized and shocked, suffering from the serious symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The complaint explains how the village of Sderot has been the target of Qassam rocket attacks from Hamas terrorists on the Gaza side of the border since 2001. The height of these attacks was between 2007-2008 when rockets and mortars fell on Sderot on a daily basis. Attacks are typically accompanied by red alert sirens provided by Israeli civil defenses, which give residents a signal to stop what they are doing immediately and seek cover. These attacks have resulted in the deaths of numerous Israeli civilians and have caused enormous trauma and property damage in Sderot and surrounding region.

Under Canadian law, it is illegal to provide assistance or support to a designated terror group.

FP: Share with us the importance that you see in this suit.

Sher: We believe it is of the utmost importance to hold accountable those who provide support, services, money and assistance to the unrepentant terror group Hamas.  Such groups and individuals surely know the terrorist designs and tactics of Hamas – they cannot plead ignorance. The aim of the flotilla is not to bring humanitarian aid to the residents. It has been widely reported that there is no humanitarian crises in Gaza; the opening of the border with Egypt underscores that point.

The real aim of the flotilla is to support Hamas’s oft stated goal of de-legitimizing and ultimately destroying Israel. Those who participate in the farce which is the flotilla are willing enablers of and accomplices to Hamas.

Moreover, under U.S. federal law it is a crime to provide material support or resources to designated terrorist groups such as Hamas. The Obama administration has stated publicly that individuals and groups who try to break Israel’s Naval blockade are taking “irresponsible and provocative actions”. The Administration should go much further and put these people on notice that they run the very real risk of being prosecuted for violating our anti-terrorism laws.

FP: Can you speak a bit about your other cases of the same vein?

Sher: As to the Berkeley case:  as your readers may remember, last March a first of its kind federal civil rights case was filed in United States District Court in Oakland, California, against the University of California at Berkeley, the Regents of the University of California and their ranking officials, by a Jewish student who had been assaulted on campus last year by a leader of a Muslim student organization during a pro-Israel event.

On March 5th of last year, Jessica Felber, a twenty year old Jewish student at Berkeley, was attacked and injured on campus because of her Jewish ancestry and religious affiliation. At the time she was holding a sign stating “Israel wants Peace.” Her assailant, Husam Zakharia, also a UC Berkeley student, was the leader of Students for Justice in Palestine (“SJP”) at Berkeley.

The University and its officials were fully aware that Zakharia, the SJP and similar student groups  had been involved in other incidents on campus to incite violence against and intimidate Jewish and other students. Nevertheless, in clear dereliction of their legal responsibilities, Defendants took no reasonable steps to protect Ms. Felber and others.

The Complaint further describes how the SJP conspires and coordinates with the Muslim Student Association (“MSA”), which has a publicly documented history of affiliation with and support of organizations deemed “terror organizations” by the United States Department of State. That they have resorted to intimidation and harassment is evidenced most recently by the fact that the District Attorney of Orange County, California, has indicted eleven students from these groups for inciting and disrupting a speech given by the Israeli Ambassador to the United States at the University of California, Irvine.

The Complaint charged that the assault was the result of the university having:  (1) fostered  and encouraged campus terrorist incitements by the SJP and the MSA) ; (2) turned a blind eye to the perpetrators of illegal activities; (3) failed to effectively discipline the MSA and SJP for their pro-terrorist programs, goals and conduct; despite having ample notice that such violence was foreseeable;  and (4) failed to provide adequate security to prevent the violence, harassment and intimidation which occurred on March 5, 2010.

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