David Abrams is an anti-Palestinian lawyer, serial litigant, and the executive director of the Zionist Advocacy Center (TZAC).

Abrams and TZAC have brought numerous harassing lawsuits against advocates for Palestinian rights as well as organizations providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

TZAC is also a registered foreign agent for the International Legal Forum (ILF), which collaborates with the Israeli government to shut down Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns for Palestinian rights. ILF has reportedly received up to $1 million from Israel.

Abrams’ arguments peddle the twin theories that criticism of Israeli policy is equal to discrimination against Jews and that support for Palestinian human rights constitutes terrorism. He views the courtroom as a “modern battlefield” and described his work as “Lawfare for Fun and Profit.” 

Failed, frivolous lawsuits brought by Abrams, TZAC or other entities created or led by Abrams include: 

• In 2015, TZAC sued the Carter Center, alleging that the peacebuilding organization defrauded the U.S. government in violation of the False Claims Act when it hosted a meeting for Palestinian political leaders. Abrams demanded the Carter Center pay $91,716,000, plus costs and “an appropriate award” to TZAC, under the theory that providing fruit, water and space for a meeting constituted material support for terrorism. The U.S. Department of Justice rejected this idea and asked the federal court to dismiss the case in 2017. The court granted the dismissal in 2018. 

• In 2015, Abrams, together with the Mossad-linked legal group Shurat HaDin filed an unfair labor practices charge against the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America challenging the union’s BDS resolution. Abrams and Shurat HaDin claimed that the union’s support for BDS was the same as calling for a work stoppage, which if true, would violate labor law. The charge was dismissed, and the National Labor Relations Board denied Abrams’ appeal. 

• Abrams sued the American Studies Association (ASA) three times and failed each time. The International Legal Forum and Athenaeum Blue & White, a company incorporated by Abrams, each sued the ASA – a nonprofit professional association of scholars –­ over its resolution to boycott academic institutions complicit in the denial of Palestinian rights. Abrams argued the ASA resolution violated New York state discrimination laws. Abrams and his companies filed three unsuccessful lawsuits against the ASA starting in 2016. The first, Abrams abandoned without ever serving the ASA. The second was dismissed as “devoid of claims,” because Abrams’ company successfully became a member of ASA and thus suffered no injury. Abrams’ company appealed, and the dismissal was affirmed in 2019. In the third case, Abrams represented the International Legal Forum, which did not try to become a member of the ASA, and thus also suffered no injury.

• In 2016, Abrams sued the National Lawyers Guild after the civil rights group refused to publish an ad in its dinner journal stating that an illegal settlement is located in Israel, when in fact the settlement is located on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. Abrams voluntarily agreed to dismiss the lawsuit for no payment in May 2020.

• In 2016 Abrams sent a petition to the Internal Revenue Service seeking to revoke the charitable status of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) for its work treating burn and trauma victims, mostly children, in the Gaza Strip. The IRS rejected the petition. Abrams wrote, “The fight continues against so-called humanitarian organizations which present themselves to the world with a big halo …”

• In 2018 Abrams filed a lawsuit against the city of Durham, North Carolina over the city council’s non-binding statement opposing international exchanges with any country including Israel, in which Durham officers receive military-style training.  The statement emphasized the importance of ending racial profiling: “Black lives matter. We can make that phrase real in Durham by rejecting the militarization of our police force in favor of a different kind of policing, and that is what we are doing in Durham now.” Abrams represented two volunteer Israeli policemen who alleged that the city’s resolution discriminated against them on the basis of national origin. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2019. 

• In 2018, Abrams/TZAC sued Oxfam under the False Claims Act, alleging the humanitarian group defrauded the US government by accepting USAID money while also funding an agricultural project to make Gaza more food secure. The lawsuit sought $160 million in damages, in addition to costs and other civil penalties. Abrams theorized that support for government ministries in Palestine is unlawful material support for terrorism. In 2019, the US Government informed the court it would file a motion to dismiss the case, and in response Abrams voluntarily dismissed it December, 2019. 

Other pending cases (as of February 2021) brought by Abrams, TZAC, or other entities created or led by Abrams include:

• In 2019, Abrams sued the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), seeking to compel the university to disclose the names of all the individuals who spoke at the National Students for Justice in Palestine conference, which took place at UCLA in fall 2018. Abrams argued that he needed to see the names of the speakers – which include undergraduate students – so that he could ensure that UCLA was not supporting terrorism when it hosted the conference. In 2020, eight of the activists who presented at the conference have intervened anonymously to protect themselves and their peers. The case is scheduled to go to trial on March 11, 2021.

• Abrams told the New Humanitarian in September 2019 that he has filed five other similar lawsuits, which remain under seal in the US courts. These five may or may not include lawsuits against three New York City-area universities which Abrams boasted about in December 2018. According to Abrams, he told Columbia University’s counsel that it could lose its federal funding if it allowed Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine on campus.

Abrams Sues Norwegian People’s Aid

• In 2018, Norwegian People's Aid (NPA), which works on disarmament, mine clearing and provides humanitarian relief, agreed to settle a False Claims Act case brought by Abrams. The lawsuit alleged that the NPA defrauded USAID by accepting a grant for aid work in South Sudan while failing to disclose that if also funded democracy training for youth in Gaza and mine clearing in Iran. NPA settled for a payment of $2 million to the US government, over $300,000 of which reportedly went to Abrams’ organization TZAC.