Is there anything more terrifying than Alan Dershowitz?
I invite protesters to ask me hard questions but I won't be silenced by intolerant censors of the extreme left/right https://t.co/T2nh2iPmzx
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) September 25, 2017
More from the Washington Free Beacon:
Dershowitz’s sold-out talk about the Constitution, free speech, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will likely be disrupted by dozens of anti-Israel student activists, said Ofir Dayan, the media coordinator for Students Supporting Israel, the group hosting the event.
Some 30 seats have been reserved by those affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and Jewish Voice for Peace, according to Dayan, a tactic she said has been used in the past to facilitate shout-downs of SSI programming.
“They sign up in large numbers so that they can protest,” she said. “[They] have an anti-normalization policy, which means they do not engage or discuss with anyone who has a different opinion. Their opinion is that Israel should be wiped off the map and that all terrorism targeting Israel or Israelis is ‘legitimate,’ so anyone who is against the murder of innocent civilians and supports Israel’s right to exist is shunned from the conversation.”
But Dershowitz is one with the radical ideas.
1. According to media reports, radical students plan to disrupt my speech at Columbia in order to prevent me sharing my moderate ideas…
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) September 26, 2017
2. re prospects for peace in the Mid East. This is what I wrote about the matter for @NYDailyNews https://t.co/rQRD9ZXifu
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) September 26, 2017
From his piece for the New York Daily News:
On Wednesday evening, I am scheduled to engage in a public conversation at Columbia University about the prospects for peace in the Middle East. The question — a critical one at a time when far too many campuses are hostile to ideas that challenge existing dogma — is whether I’ll be heard or shouted down.
I am a centrist liberal who voted for Hillary Clinton. I support a two-state solution. I have long opposed Israel’s settlement policies. I am not one of those hard-right provocateurs who come to campus in order to stoke the flames of controversy (though they too, have First Amendment rights). I am a retired professor who wants to contribute to the education of students with regard to a complex, divisive issue.
Yet according to reports in the media, radical students plan to disrupt my speech in an effort to prevent me from sharing my moderate ideas with Columbia students. The protesters are apparently afraid that I may actually persuade some open-minded students that the issues surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict are nuanced and that Israel alone is not to blame for the current stalemate.
Wow. Israel’s not hell on earth? So inflammatory! No wonder Columbia students are so triggered.
https://twitter.com/TschirhartScott/status/912739249975365632
Remember when willingness to consider opposing views was a value prized by students? That was fun.
Very sad state of affairs when anyone cannot peacefully state an opinion or view without the threat of disruption or intimidation
— Mark K (@bdlefan) September 26, 2017
That is what is being taught and tolerated.
— Craig Bosse (@bossefrbg) September 26, 2017
You know things have gotten extreme when the left is protesting Dershowitz.
— Me. (@RickRollin_) September 26, 2017
When @AlanDersh is too dangerous for students…
That's it, pack it in. There's no helping these people. https://t.co/PSywIXdBoP
— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) September 26, 2017
Join the conversation as a VIP Member