Hatred at Faneuil Hall by Alan Dershowitz

Hatred at Faneuil Hall
by Alan M. Dershowitz -- Jerusalem Post
Sunday, March 21, 2004
----
The other day, I experienced violent anti-Semitism for the first time in my adult life. It took place in front of Faneuil Hall, the birthplace of American independence and liberty.
I was receiving a justice award from the Jewish Council on Public Affairs and delivering a talk on Civil Liberties in the Age of Terrorism from the podium of that historic hall.
When I left, award in hand, I was accosted by a group of screaming, angry young men and women carrying virulently anti-Israel signs. The protest was denominated a peace event and was sponsored by a group calling themselves by the vague name ACT-MA.
Their Web site describes them as promoting peace and justice, but there was nothing peaceful or just about this protest.
Although the signs they were carrying were not anti-Semitic, the sign carriers were shouting epithets at me that crossed the line from civility to bigotry. Dershowitz and Hitler, just the same, the only difference is the name. The sin that, in the opinion of the screamers, warranted this comparison between me and the man who
(...)
I DO NOT believe that criticism of Israel, or even of Zionism, is tantamount to anti-Semitism, and I have so written over the years. But what happened in front of Faneuil Hall went beyond criticism.
To be sure, it was constitutionally protected speech, just as the Nazi march through Skokie was constitutionally protected speech. But the shouting was plainly calculated to intimidate.
(...)
I will not be silenced nor intimidated. The shouters know that. Their goal is to silence and intimidate others who do not get police protection and do not have access to the media.
Let the debate about Israel and the Palestinians continue unabated. Let all views be heard. The shouters in front of Faneuil Hall wanted no views but their own to be seen and heard.
They succeeded that day in front of Faneuil Hall, as they have on some university campuses, but the marketplace of ideas is far too vibrant to be shut down by a bunch of self-righteous thugs shouting ugly and bigoted epithets.
----
The writer, a professor of law at Harvard, is author of The Case for Israel.
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Read the rest here.

. . . from a guy who had just given a SPEECH.

"The shouters in front of Faneuil Hall wanted no views but their own to be seen and heard."

He acts like they disrupted the speech or attempted to keep him from entering and speaking. His was the view actually heard, yet still he whines such.

Check your inbox.

that these protesters even listened to Dershowitz' speech?

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He supports torture.

He may not be Hitler--that is totally beyond the pale--but I'd say equating him Bush and ASSSKKKcroft is right on the money.

I will not defend the protesters' rhetoric, but I'm glad he getting hounded, as a general thing.

not Dershowitz again.

Inflammatory, hateful, and idiotic rhetoric? Certainly.

Not that Alan hasn't done a bit of that himself..he simply cloaks it as legalese in a foreign policy talk

while Dershowitz may do a lucid bleat, he as 'Dershowitz himself' is a long way from being the most pleasant person on the planet what with his calls for torture amoung other things.

To me, the concept involves attacking someone simply because he is Jewish. Dershowitz was not attacked JUST because he's Jewish, but because of his perceived support for torture and oppression.

In any case, I thought anti-Semites were likely to WORSHIP Hitler. Evidently this group uses his name as just a very harsh insult, which is exactly the opposite.

I'm sorry the police wouldn't let Dershowitz speak with the protestors. Perhaps an exchange might have convinced them they were wrong, and that he apparently agrees with much of their position.

One may criticize Dershowitz' position all day long, but anti-Semitic cat calls are still racist and out of line. Dershowitz says nothing more than that in this piece. Therefore, I agree with him.

One may disagree with Louis Farrakhan (I do more often than not), but it would still be improper to refer to him with a word that starts with n and rhymes with bigger. It is no different here.

If one disagrees with Dershowitz, one should say so after Dershowitz has spoken. That is proper democratic etiquette.

As for my own views of one of Mr. Dershowitz' specific positions, please click here. I'm obviously a big fan of his.

There is much to disagree with Mr. Dershowitz's position, but to only attack the man in such a way to attempt to intimidate him with stereotypes is completely repugnant.

L-

P.S.

I also want to applaud your fine article once again.

He says thier motivations were which in court is called "mind reading"

(emphasis added):

There was no place for nuance here. It was black and white, good versus evil, and any Jew who supported Israel was pure evil, deserving of torture, violence, and whatever fate Hitler and Goebbels deserved . . . .
When I turned to answer one of the bigoted chants, the police officer in charge gently but firmly insisted that I walk directly to my car and not engage them. It was an order, reasonably calculated to assure my safety, and it was right.

On the contrary, sir, I think Mr. Dershowitz is, in fact, characterizing those who protested his appearance as racists who attacked him for being a Jew who supports Israel.

As you know, CL, I couldn't be less sympathetic to the Likud position. Nevertheless, there is room for disagreement. I disagree strongly with much of what Dershowitz says about the Middle East conflict and other issues, such as his views on torture. However, I would not silence him and I certainly would not heap that kind of abuse on him.

That's extremely offensive. But I've seen both the left and the right do it and both then claim that such actions were their "freedom of speech."

which if you read the article, you'll notice that he wasn't.

"It took place in front of Faneuil Hall, the birthplace of American independence and liberty."

Not IN Faneuil Hall. So you can't pull the "oh how terrible to heckle him while he speaks."

They were protesting, which as far as I know - has nothing to do with shouting him down.

He went in, got his award, made a nice speech which everybody applauded, probably had some wine and some nice nibbles while chating afterwards, and then when he came out some people hurled abuse at him. All fairly standard.

In fact derthowitz got a bonus, he got a nice newspaper story out of it, where he is, of course, the underseved victim of an anti-semitic outrage commited by 'foul lefties'.

:shrug:

they left wing - right wing ???

Which is an email discussion list which offers a calendar of events for progressives to attend.

Here is their posting of the event.

http://lists.topica.com/lists/act-ma@igc.topica.com/read/message.html?mid=808619792

:)

and I wonder why. Why does acknowledging anti semitism weaken any political position you may have?

Im waiting for some of you to say the Holocaust wasn't racially motivated.

Oh wait, that was said on DU rather recently.. Be careful what you wish for, I guess.

it is just nice to see that bastard Derthowitz get it the neck really.

A mean unpleasant thought true, but he deserves it.

so if a bunch of Jewish students showed up where an Arab American, say John Sununu, was speaking and protested his conservative views by saying, "You filthy raghead, you are the same as bin Laden" then you would be hunky dory with that?

Somehow I don't think you would.

Dershowitz disagrees with you on one issue and that view is misrepresented anyway.

the difference is Derthowitz isn't right, just like Bill O'Rilley isn't right, or bush* or Chenney, or Rumsfeld, or Sharon, etc.

When I was an undergraduate at Harvard, I had the opportunity to listen to and talk with Dershowitz on numerous occassions. There is certainly a part of him that is very into his own celebrity, and I don't agree with all of the positions he has taken (particularly on interrogation techniques.) Bur he is a very brave man--he says a lot of things that need to be said, and puts himself into the line of fire. I have a lot of respect for him.