A New York lawyer infamous for defending terrorists said he is providing legal aid to Hamas members in Gaza and elsewhere.
“I continue to represent various Palestinian movements and individuals. I have since 1995,” said Stanley Cohen, a self-described radical attorney whose website boasts he has “Hamas on the phone.”
“I speak with representatives of Hamas on an as-needed basis for legal advice and in matters pending in international courts,” said Cohen, 70, who has also repped members of Hezbollah and Al Qaeda.
The attorney claims he’s recently communicated with Hamas members in Gaza and abroad but declined to specify when, with whom, or about what.
Hamas leaders are known to live in plush compounds in friendly host nations.
Former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal called for an international day of Jihad this week from his hideaway in Qatar.
Cohen was raised as an Orthodox Jew but has left the faith.
“I walked away long ago as the effort to conflate a 120-year-old European colonial project with a 3000-year-old faith took hold,” he said.
Last week Hamas fighters stormed into Israel from Gaza, killing 1,300 and taking at least 150 people hostage.
Among the victims were dozens of babies, some of whom were burned alive and decapitated.
Among the dead were 27 Americans.
“Do I agree with the notion that Palestinians have a right to armed struggle, I do,” he said, calling Israeli “settlers” and soldiers “legitimate targets under international law.”
On Thursday he posted on X that a “dear friend” had been killed during fighting in Gaza.
“A retired general, he served for many years with [late Palestine president Yasser Arafat],” he wrote.
Another tweeted image he posted in 2021 shows him smiling with former Hamas terror leaders Ahmed Yassin and Ismail Abu Shanab — who were both later killed by the Israeli military.
Cohen, who resides mostly in the Catskills but travels to New York City periodically, said he doesn’t take money from Hamas and that his legal work for the terrorist organization was pro bono.
In 2014, Cohen was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being indicted on charges of failing to file six years worth of tax returns.
The colorful litigator represented Osama Bin Laden’s son-in-law Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2014 for conspiring to kill Americans. He repped Weather Underground terrorist Kathy Boudin and Larry Davis — who shot six NYPD officers in the South Bronx in 1986.
Cohen’s work has generated a cottage industry of critics, some of whom are mentioned in a special area of his website dedicated to “haters.”
“Thank God that Hamas is being represented by so incompetent and bigoted a lawyer like Stanley Cohen. They deserve each other,” said Alan Dershowitz, longtime Harvard Law Professor.
“There is a big difference between defending the constitutional rights of accused terrorists, and supporting their ongoing terrorism in an ideological way, as Cohen seems to be doing.”
He needs to go to Gaza or the west bank and tell his friends he's Jewish. They'll be playing Soccer with his head in 5 minutes, unless they decide to torture him for a few days first.
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