| Brooke Goldstein | |
| Education: | McGill University (BA) Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (JD) |
| Occupation: | Founder and Executive Director of The Lawfare Project |
| Notable Works: | The Making of A Martyr (2006 film) Lawfare: The War Against Free Speech (2011 book) |
Brooke Goldstein is a human rights attorney. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Lawfare Project.[1]
Goldstein was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is a graduate of McGill University and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.[2]
Her grandfather was a commander in a unit of Polish partisans that fought against the Nazis.[3]
CNN anchor Carol Costello describes Goldstein as "a woman on a mission" who traveled to the West Bank, "as a young law student," to film the 2006 documentary film The Making of A Martyr.[4] Goldstein produced and directed the film about a Palestinian sixteen-year-old, Hussam Abdo, who was stopped at an Israeli border checkpoint when guards found live explosives wrapped around his body. Goldstein argues that Palestinian activists, by encouraging suicide bombing, abuse the rights of Palestinian children.[2] [4] Goldstein calls the use of children as suicide bombers, "the intentional murder of innocent children."[4]
Continuing her work from the film, in 2007 Goldstein founded the Children's Rights Institute, "a non-profit organization that tracks and legally combats violations of children's basic human rights, with a special focus on child suicide-homicide bombers, child soldiers, and the phenomenon of human shields."[5]
Goldstein founded The Lawfare Project in 2010,[6] an American nonprofit advocacy organization based in New York City which serves as a legal think tank and litigation fund to uphold the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and pro-Israel community worldwide.[7] [8]
Goldstein co-authored the 2011 book Lawfare: The War Against Free Speech: A First Amendment Guide for Reporting in an Age of Islamist Lawfare. The book offers advice to journalists about how to protect themselves against what Goldstein and Meyer describe as "'Islamist lawfare,' the use of the law as a weapon of war to silence and punish free speech about militant Islam, terrorism and its sources of financing."[9]
Prior to the Lawfare Project, Goldstein worked for the Middle East Forum for two years, directing the organization's "Legal Project" program, "which arranges pro-bono and reduced rate council for people wrongfully sued for speaking about issues of national security," particularly terrorism and Islamic extremism.[5]
Goldstein has been a regular guest on Fox News,[10] and is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations.[11] [12]