Well over 100 students gathered on campus Wednesday to see Alan
Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor well known for his strong
support of Israel and work on the defense teams of several famous
clients.
Dershowitz spoke on campus Wednesday about world condemnation of
human rights violations perpetrated by Israel, saying that such
“obsessive” focus on Israel takes time and energy away
from the protest of other more serious human rights violations
perpetrated by other countries.
It is rare to see students protesting any human rights issue
outside of issues surrounding Israel, he said.
“College students ought to look at human rights
priority-wise,” he said. “Campuses ignore first-grade
human rights violations.”
Dershowitz used places such as Sudan and China as examples
““ there are far fewer demonstrations against the Chinese for
their actions toward Tibet, for example, although the violations
are far greater, he said.
“It is being treated as the Jew among nations,”
Dershowitz said.
At the beginning of the event, UCLA law professor and moderator
Jonathan Zasloff questioned Dershowitz based on the title of his
lecture, “How the World’s Obsessive Focus on
Israel’s Imperfection Takes Away from Real
Genocide.”
Zasloff opened the discussion by asking if not being as bad as
others is good enough.
Dershowitz responded that there is “disporportionate
energy” given to condemning Israeli actions, and that
“comparative criticism” should be given.
Later, Zasloff brought up another question, implying that as a
liberal democracy, Israel is held to a higher moral standard than
the countries used in Dershowitz’s earlier comparisons.
But because Israel is a democracy, Dershowitz responded, they
have an extensive court system and free press that already allows
internal criticism.
No other country faced with the same threats have acted with
such restraint, he added.
Dershowitz did not, however, voice support for all Israeli
policy.
“I condemn Israel for its use of cluster bombs in the last
days of the (Lebanese-Israeli war),” he said.
Dershowitz published controversial articles after the
Lebanese-Israel war last summer, discussing the need to change the
definition of combatants or civilians during a war.
When combatants no longer wear uniforms, or women volunteer to
be human shields, the old distinctions are no longer applicable, he
said.
Bruins for Israel President Leeron Morad agreed with
Dershowitz.
“Israel isn’t perfect, but it’s done an
amazing job given its situation,” he said.
Though the majority of the crowd was vocal in their support for
what Dershowitz had to say, several students expressed
dissatisfaction with Dershowitz’s views during the
question-and-answer period at the end of the event.
Norah Sarsour, a member of the Muslim Student Association,
called Dershowitz’s book, “The Case for Israel,”
fiction. She cited charges of plagiarism made by DePaul political
science Professor Norman Finkelstein
Dershowitz responded by saying that all charges of plagiarism
made by Finkelstein were cleared by Harvard University.
But Sabiha Ameen, president of the Muslim Student Association,
was not convinced.
“He still didn’t discredit Norman
Finkelstein’s sources,” she said.
Some students also voiced discontent with Dershowitz’s
prioritization of other violations.
Sarsour said that by reducing the priority placed on the lives
of Palestinians, “he doesn’t value human
life.”