Letters to the editor
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 11, 2005 9:00 p.m.
UC Press should fact-check for lies
In the article about my opposition to Norman Finkelstein’s
book, “Opposition raised to UC Press publication”
(News, April 8), the author completely misses my point. Finkelstein
simply made up his claim that I didn’t write my book,
“The Case For Israel.” This is what he said:
“(Dershowitz) didn’t write the book. … I don’t
believe he read the book.
“(Dershowitz has) come to the point where he’s had
so many people write so many of his books. … It’s sort of
like a Hallmark line for Nazis. … They churn them out so fast
that he has now reached a point where he doesn’t even read
them.”
To disprove this blatant lie, I sent the University of
California Press my handwritten and dated drafts of the book, which
prove that I wrote every word of it by hand. (I do not type or use
a computer). As a result, the UC Press has made Finkelstein remove
that particular lie from his book.
I have asked them to check his other lies as well. They have
promised to do so, but so far have not fact-checked with me about
these other falsehoods. I have reminded them that
Finkelstein’s own mentor, Peter Novick, said the following
about Finklestein’s previous book (which the New York Times
called “a novel variation on the anti-Semitic forgery,
“˜The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'”):
“No facts alleged by Finkelstein should be assumed to be
really facts, no quotation in his book should be assumed to be
accurate, without taking the time to carefully compare his claims
with the sources he cites.”
All I want is for the UC Press to follow the recommendation of
Finkelstein’s own mentor. If it does, I am confident that it
will exercise its own First Amendment right not to lend its
imprimatur to a pack of bigoted lies. This is an example of the
marketplace of ideas in operation.
Alan Dershowitz Professor, Harvard Law
Palestinians do not have right of return
People are entitled to their own opinion, but one’s
opinions should be based on fact and not misinformation. The most
glaring inaccuracy in “Justice missing from “˜peace
plan'” (April 7) is that settlers being evacuated from
Gaza will be resettled in the more valuable West Bank. Currently,
Sharon plans to relocate them to near the Israeli port city
Ashkelon, nowhere near the West Bank.
Perhaps the most controversial issue Noor Kurdi addresses, the
so-called “right of return” for Palestinian refugees
from the 1948 Israel independence war, is a claim that must be
dropped by the Palestinian side. First, most of the refugees from
that war have passed away and their descendents have had ample
opportunity for resettling. If Israel is expected to compensate
those refugees and their descendents, then Iraq, Yemen, Syria,
Iran, Egypt and perhaps some other countries should then also
compensate the hundreds of thousands of Jews they made refugees
during the same war.
Gal Sitty Fourth-year, economics
