CASE UPDATE: Human rights complaint filed for hate crime victim Lihi Aharon

Dear friends,

I’m sure you remember the brutal, unprovoked assault of Lihi Aharon on a New York City subway last winter. Lihi, a young Jewish-Israeli woman, was physically attacked and subjected to a stream of vile anti-Semitic slurs after the assailant overheard her speaking Hebrew with another passenger. The Lawfare Project provided pro bono representation for Lihi and made a commitment to help her seek justice—ultimately succeeding in securing a hate crime indictment for the attacker.

Now, The Lawfare Project, in partnership with attorney and Executive Director of the Zionist Advocacy Center David Abrams, has filed a complaint with the NYC Commission on Human Rights on Lihi’s behalf. In addition to ongoing criminal proceedings, this complaint will force Lihi’s attacker to face judgment on whether her actions constitute unlawful discriminatory violence and, if they do, she may face additional consequences.

After the filing, David Abrams outlined his hopes for a fair review of the claim, saying, "I trust that the Commission on Human Rights will honor its mandate to seek justice for all victims of discriminatory harassment and violence in New York, including Jews and Israelis."

The truth is, it doesn't take a lawyer to see that this attack was an unlawful and targeted act of hate due to Lihi’s ethnicity and religion. In video capturing the attack, the assailant can be heard spouting obscenities including, "You f---in' nasty a-- Jews" and "You stinking a-- Jew." Lihi later recounted her attacker saying "Allah will kill you." The motive for this assault can be heard in the attacker’s own words.

I am confident that the Commission will do the right thing and treat this complaint as seriously as it would if a member of another minority group had been similarly subjected to a bias-motivated attack.

Our fight to secure justice for Lihi is far from over. We need your help and support to keep attention on this case as we explore every avenue to hold Lihi’s attacker accountable. Thank you for your commitment to helping The Lawfare Project fight Jew hatred wherever we see it.

Sincerely,

Brooke Goldstein
Executive Director, The Lawfare Project