Published: December 10, 2009

Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor and a staunch defender of Israel, spoke in Fordham’s McNally Amphitheater on Nov. 19 in reaction to The Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, headed by Richard Goldstone, a visiting professor at the Fordham Law School. Although the event was described as a “debate,” Goldstone himself said in advance that he would not attend; he told the Observer he had a prior commitment in Washington, D.C.

At the so-called debate, Dershowitz criticized the report’s conclusion that Israel had deliberately ordered targeted killings of civilians, calling it a “leap of logic.” “If Judge Goldstone were here, I’d point my finger at him and say, ‘Judge Goldstone, point me to one item of evidence… that demonstrates that any Israeli leader wanted to kill civilians, ordered soldiers to kill people with their hands up, holding white flags. Point to one piece of evidence,’ and he’d stand there dumbstruck. That, Judge Goldstone, is a blood libel. And when a blood libel comes from a fellow Jew, it is an aggravated blood libel.”

Dershowitz’s “blood libel” comment provoked at least one audience member. Rob Beatson, FCLC ‘10, said, “I was walking through the atrium coming from the law library when a guy stormed out of McNally shouting about Dershowitz’s blood-libeler comments.”

Goldstone responded and said, “Professor Dershowitz’s accusation that the report’s conclusion constitutes a ‘blood libel,’ whatever he understands that expression to mean, demeans him and not the authors of the report. The facts in the report speak for themselves.”

Dershowitz commented on Goldstone’s absence, “I’m chagrined by the fact that [Goldstone] turned down the opportunity to defend the Goldstone report,” he said. “This could have been a very interesting conversation and debate.”

Goldstone said, “I would not in the future debate Professor Dershowitz at any public meeting.” Goldstone said he had “no other comments concerning Professor Dershowitz’s performance.”

Dershowitz, who has called the Goldstone Report “a disaster from every political perspective,” said of Goldstone’s absence, “Judge Goldstone has accused many of his critics of not having read the report, but when he was invited to debate somebody who had not only read the report but had read the report twice, studied it, analyzed it and gone over it as a lawyer would go over a legal brief, he declined that opportunity, though he’s accepted many opportunities to be on television and answer questions from people who had obviously not read the report.”

The event was organized and sponsored the Fordham Jewish Law Student Association in conjunction with Hasbara Fellowships, a program launched by the Orthodox Jewish organization Aish International. It states on its Web site that its mission is to, “educate and train university students to be effective pro-Israel activists on their campuses.”

Judah Fuld, who introduced Dershowitz on behalf of Fordham’s Jewish Law Student Association, said that Dershowitz was invited to Fordham because, “Professor Dershowitz is well-known for his scholarship in international human rights and the Middle East conflict. We felt that it would be a great opportunity for the law school community.”

During his lecture, Dershowitz criticized Goldstone’s use of testimony in compiling his report, specifically noting the absence of the testimony of British Colonel Richard Kemp, which contradicts the findings of the Goldstone Report. Dershowitz said, “This a commission that found that there were no human shields used and here is a man (Kemp) who testified that human shields were used… and yet this testimony was rejected. This tells a little bit about the mindset of the commission and a man who would not sit here and debate me because he does not want to hear the other side.”

Dershowitz criticized the assessment of credibility of testimony used in the report, noting that, while the Goldstone Commission validated testimony from Palestinians and Israeli dissidents, it did not find credible statements from Israeli government officials or other Israeli witnesses. Dershowitz called this group, “utterly disqualified,” and noted Goldstone’s statement that in a court of law, nothing the report found would be “worth anything, and that they didn’t have any ‘real evidence’ of any crimes of warfare;” claims which Dershowitz said Goldstone contradicted in an interview with The Forward, a Jewish newspaper. “That is surely not what the report says. The report is filled with judicial conclusions; conclusions about assessment, testimony and credibility,” Dershowitz said.

Dershowitz then addressed Goldstone’s suggestions for what Israel could have done in response to Hamas rocket attacks.

“[Goldstone] said, ‘Israel could have taken the matter to the Security Council… Is he serious? Does he not understand the organization he works for?… If Israel brought up to the Security Council the fact that Hamas was sending rockets to kill civilians, the Security Council would have condemned Israel for hurting the rockets by having them land on the hard heads of Israeli civilians.”

Dershowitz said Goldstone’s second suggestion was to end the blockades, and then the rockets will stop. “Israel tried that,” he said. “At first it didn’t have the blockades when the rockets began. That’s like saying, ‘End the occupation and the terrorists will stop.’”

Dershowitz then criticized Goldstone’s suggestion to have commando raids. “Does he know what it means to have commando raids in the middle of Gaza City? A single Israeli soldier has not been in Gaza City in years and years and even way before the end of the occupation, Israel did not have soldiers in Gaza City. You cannot send commandos into Gaza City… Who made Judge Goldstone a general?

“The fourth obvious suggestion is Israel could use targeted killing,” Dershowitz said. “But would Israel use targeted killing when organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Human Rights Council, the United Nations will condemn Israel for that? So Israel has been told essentially, ‘Everything you do, we will condemn. There is no option but to do nothing and allow your civilians to be killed.’ That is not an option acceptable in any democracy.”

Dershowitz said that although Goldstone could have taken this opportunity to make the report fair and balanced, instead, “he took a report which could have had no credibility because the U.N. Human Rights Council condemns Israel more than all the other countries in the world combined; the only reason it has credibility is because it has a Jewish name attached to it. The only reason it has credibility is because Judge Goldstone allowed himself to be used in this way, and as a result of that peace is more distant, Israel’s right to defend itself is more questionable, the whole enterprise of human rights has been cast into question.”

Fuld said he was disappointed by Goldstone’s refusal to debate Dershowitz, but said he would be “happy to try and organize another program.” According to Fuld, “The event was hugely successful. There was not an empty chair in the amphitheatre. The event was covered by the international media. There have already been over 10,000 views of the video on the Internet.” The event recording can be viewed at http://israelactivism.com/video/.

The Fordham Law Democrats, The Fordham Law Republicans, The Fordham Law Men’s Society, The Black Law Student Association, The International Law Journal, The Media and Entertainment Law Society and The Federalist Society also co-sponsored the event.