Alan M. Dershowitz
I was recently invited to
present the liberal case for Israel at Berkeley. In my remarks I advocated the
establishment of a Palestinian state and a negotiated end of the conflict. I
encouraged hostile questions from protestors and answered all of them. The
audience responded positively to the dialogue.
Then immediately after my
address, a poster was plastered outside Berkeley Law School with a swastika
drawn on my face.
The Dean of Berkeley Law
School, Erwin Cherwinsky, sent a letter condemning the swastika: "Several
of our students expressed their disagreement with him [Dershowitz] and did so
in a completely appropriate way that led to discussion and dialogue. I was
pleased to hear of how this went, but then shocked to learn of the swastika
drawn on a flyer that someone had posted about him."
Shortly after, The Daily
Californian – Berkeley's student newspaper – published an anti-Semitic cartoon,
depicting an ugly caricature of me sticking my head through a cardboard
cut-out. Behind the cardboard I am portrayed stomping on a Palestinian child
with my foot, while holding in my hand an Israeli soldier who is shooting an
unarmed Palestinian youth. Above the cardboard cut-out the title of my speech –
The Liberal Case for Israel – is scrawled in capital letters.
In a Letter to the Editor, the
university's Chancellor, Carol Christ, wrote the following:
"Your recent editorial
cartoon targeting Alan Dershowitz was offensive, appalling and deeply
disappointing. I condemn its publication. Are you aware that its anti-Semitic
imagery connects directly to the centuries-old "blood libel" that
falsely accused Jews of engaging in ritual murder? I cannot recall anything
similar in the Daily Cal, and I call on the paper's editors to reflect on
whether they would sanction a similar assault on other ethnic or religious
groups. We cannot build a campus community where everyone feels safe, respected
and welcome if hatred and the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes become an
acceptable part of our discourse."
It is shocking that this vile
caricature – which would fit comfortably in a Nazi publication – was published
in "the official paper of record of the City of Berkeley" (according
to the Editor.) The cartoon resembles the grotesque anti-Semitic blood libel
propaganda splashed across Der Sturmer in the 1930's, which depicted Jews
drinking the blood of gentile children. Canards about Jews as predators –
prominently promulgated by the Tzarist forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of
Zion – were anti-Semitic back then and are still anti-Semitic today, whether
espoused by the extreme left or the extreme right.
This sequence of events – by hard-left students who originally protested my right to speak at Berkeley– confirmed what I've long believed: that there is very little difference between the Nazis of the hard right and the anti-Semites of the hard left. There is little doubt that this abhorrent caricature was a hard-left Neo-Nazi expression.
These anti-Semitic displays
against me were in reaction to a speech in which I advocated a Palestinian
state; an end to the occupation and opposition to Israeli settlement policies.
Many on the hard-left refuse to acknowledge this sort of nuanced positioning.
That is because their hostility towards Israel does not stem from any
particular Israeli actions or policies. Even if Israel were to withdraw from
the West Bank, destroy the security barrier, and recognize Hamas as a
legitimate political organization, it would still not be enough. For these
radicals, it is not about what Israel does; it is about what Israel is: the
nation state of the Jewish people. To many on the hard left, Israel is an
imperialistic, apartheid, genocidal, and colonialist enterprise that must be
destroyed.
Nonetheless, just as I
defended the rights of Nazis to march in Skokie, I defend the right of
hard-left bigots to produce this sort of anti-Semitic material, despite it
being hate speech. Those who condemn hate speech when it comes from the Right
should also speak up when hate speech comes from the Left. The silence from
those on the Left is steeped in hypocrisy. It reflects the old adage: free
speech for me but not for thee.
To be sure, the students had
the right to publish this cartoon, but they also had the right not to publish
it. I am confident that if the shoe were on the other foot – if a cartoon of
comparable hate directed against women, gays, blacks or Muslims were proposed –
they would not have published it. There is one word for this double standard.
It's called bigotry.
The best response to bigotry
is the opposite of censorship: it is exposure and shaming in the court of
public opinion. The offensive cartoon should not be removed, as some have
suggested. It should be widely circulated along with the names prominently
displayed of the anti-Semite who drew it and the bigoted editors who decided to
publish it. Every potential employer or admissions officer should ask them to
justify their bigotry.
Joel Mayorga is the anti-Semitic cartoonist. Karim Doumar (Editor in Chief and President), Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks (Managing Editor) and Suhauna Hussain (Opinion Editor) head the editorial board that
oversaw the decision to publish it. They must be held accountable for their
reprehensible actions. I challenge them to justify their bigotry. It will not
be enough to hide behind the shield of freedom of speech, because that freedom
also entails the right not to publish anti-Semitic expression, if they would
refuse to publish other bigoted expression.
After I submitted my op-ed,
the Daily Cal tried to censor my piece in a self-serving way by omitting my
characterization of the cartoonist as an anti-Semite. As far as I know they did
not edit the offending cartoon. Also, the editor claimed that the intent of the
cartoon was to expose the "hypocrisy" of my talk. Yet, the newspaper
never even reported on the content of my talk and I don't know whether the
cartoonist was even at my talk. The cartoon was clearly based on a stereotype
not on the content of my talk.
Alan M. Dershowitz, Gatestone Institute, October 26, 2017 at 12:30 pm
Alan M. Dershowitz, Gatestone Institute, October 26, 2017 at 12:30 pm
Tenho dificuldade de falar sobre qualquer assunto que envolva o conflito entre Palestinos e Judeus.
ResponderExcluirSempre acabo sendo parcial, judeus hassídicos ,então , me parecem seres medievais . Caso semelhante temos na religião católica, são os cavaleiros da fé que renegam o Concílio Vaticano II .
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