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A Washington, D.C. court has ordered prominent anti-Israel/anti-Semitic activists to pay a rabbi $182,000 for falsely accusing him in court of “stalking” after he prayed at the Israel embassy, which they staked out for months in a protest.
Hazami Barmada, who “held several high-level positions at the United Nations” and in 2023 “joined the faculty of George Washington University,” along with Atefeh Rokhvand, the founder of Teachers Against Genocide, tried to misuse the court system. They asked for a restraining order against Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, but last week, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia’s Domestic Violence Division said no. The restraining order would have stopped the rabbi from going near the Israel embassy, where the two women were leading a nonstop protest.
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The judge, John McCabe, watched a video that didn’t match what the activists claimed in their legal papers. Instead, it showed Rabbi Herzfeld praying peacefully at the embassy while Barmada made fun of him using a megaphone. In his ruling, which hadn’t been reported before, the judge wrote that Barmada wasn’t afraid of the rabbi—she even called his being there “hilarious.”
The judge, John McCabe, watched a video that didn’t match what the activists claimed in their legal papers. Instead, it showed Rabbi Herzfeld praying peacefully at the embassy while Barmada made fun of him using a megaphone. In his ruling, which hadn’t been reported before, the judge wrote that Barmada wasn’t afraid of the rabbi—she even called his being there “hilarious.”
The ruling also said, “There is no evidence that Respondent ever threatened the Petitioners. There is no evidence that he ever followed, monitored or placed them under surveillance. The only times he ever saw them was at the location of the protests on three occasions (only two with regard to Ms. Rokhvand). The evidence suggests that his presence on those occasions was not an attempt to locate Petitioners or any other particular individuals; he was going to the embassy to pray.” Basically, the court found that the rabbi wasn’t bothering anyone—he was just there to pray.
After the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023, Hazami Barmada and Atefeh Rokhvand started almost nonstop protests at Israel’s embassy in Washington and outside the home of former Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The court ruling shared some details about Barmada: “Hazami Barmada is 40 years old. She received an MPA degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School and has worked at the Aspen Institute.” It also noted, “She stated that she sometimes protested at the home of (now former) U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in northern Virginia, at times throwing fake blood in the direction of motor vehicles entering or exiting his home.”
The judge pointed out that Barmada and Rokhvand are experienced protesters who often act in bold, confrontational ways—stuff they say is protected as free speech. So, they should’ve known that Rabbi Herzfeld’s actions were allowed too. Because they tried to stop him with a weak lawsuit, the judge made them pay the rabbi’s legal fees under the anti-SLAPP Act. That law stops people from using lawsuits to silence others who disagree with them on big issues.
The anti-Israel activists claimed the rabbi stalked them, pointing to three days he was at the embassy. But the judge found problems with their story. Rokhvand wasn’t even there one of those days, and “Barmada’s description in her petition of the events of March 21 did not accurately describe what had occurred,” he wrote.
Their claims didn’t hold up.
“It was only upon observing the video evidence that the Court was able to clearly see that the Respondent’s activities were not even directed at the Petitioner in particular (other than his agreeing with her that inhumanity is awful no matter who is to blame), that Petitioner Barmada and her fellow protesters were far louder and more confrontational than Respondent, and that Petitioner Barmada was not in any way intimidated by the Respondent as she remarked about how ‘hilarious’ he and his companions were while speaking into a megaphone,” the ruling said.
On the second day, May 2, Rabbi Herzfeld drove by in a car and asked through the window, “Why do you support the raping of innocent women?” The judge wrote, “The Petitioners may very well have been offended by what the Respondent said on May 2, just as the Respondent was likely offended when Petitioner Barmada called him a Nazi and a supporter of terrorizing children on March 21, 2024. However, as Petitioner’s own attorneys asserted,” these harsh words, while upsetting, are allowed under free speech rights.
On the second day, May 2, Rabbi Herzfeld drove by in a car and asked through the window, “Why do you support the raping of innocent women?” The judge wrote, “The Petitioners may very well have been offended by what the Respondent said on May 2, just as the Respondent was likely offended when Petitioner Barmada called him a Nazi and a supporter of terrorizing children on March 21, 2024. However, as Petitioner’s own attorneys asserted,” these harsh words, while upsetting, are allowed under free speech rights.
On the third day, May 7, Rokhvand said the rabbi “went through my stuff.” But the judge said video proved he only “simply directed his companion to take photographs of [a] basket of ear plugs.” The rabbi explained that protesters used those ear plugs to protect their own ears while blasting loud noise at others. The judge also noted that the basket wasn’t even close to Rokhvand.
Then, in May, the rabbi took Barmada and Rokhvand to federal court, claiming they hurt his hearing. He said that after he went to the embassy on a religious holiday to pray for Hamas’ hostages to be freed, their group attacked him with sound. The lawsuit said, “The physical attack consisted of using speakers, sirens, and other sound-emitting devices to produce siren-like sounds in the range of 95-100 decibels—more than 1,000 times the noise level permitted under D.C. law—with the purpose and intent to injure Rabbi Herzfeld.”
The following week, the protesters filed the action in city court against Herzfeld.
In an email to conservative outlet The Daily Wire, Barmada and Rokhvand suggested that the rabbi’s lawyer, Steven Lieberman, was being greedy, saying the $182,000 figure was “over-inflated legal fees.”
In an email to conservative outlet The Daily Wire, Barmada and Rokhvand suggested that the rabbi’s lawyer, Steven Lieberman, was being greedy, saying the $182,000 figure was “over-inflated legal fees.”
“We were shocked by the tone and findings outlined in the subsequent order granting outrageous legal fees. Albeit ultimately deemed ‘protected speech,’ the evidence at trial showed Rabbi Herzfeld and his cohorts, on multiple occasions, came inappropriately close to females and made offensive and vile remarks to intimidate them, e.g. ‘why do you support rape,'” they said. “We will appeal, and look forward to a final ruling on the matter.”
The statement came through their lawyer, Asim Humayun, who has posted on Instagram calling for a “registry for Americans in IDF” and said he wears a Palestinian flag pin as a “piece of s—t repellant.” In one photo, Media Benjamin—a well-known CodePink activist famous for confronting pro-Israel lawmakers—was spotted at a hearing tied to the stalking case.
Early in the legal battle, a Washington, D.C. judge issued a temporary restraining order against the rabbi. Afterward, Humayun shared a smiling picture with Barmada, writing: “We had to take out a restraining order against a rabbi who keeps coming and harassing us, has wrongfully sued us, and lied about us in the news. We won’t be silenced!”
Herzfeld might still get the $182,000 he’s owed. Even though Barmada acts like a radical living in a tent during the nonstop protest outside Blinken’s house, court records show she actually lives in a $1.5 million home with an indoor pool.
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