Issue date: 3/15/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Gustavo Centeno Criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz speaks at the lecture "Global Terrorism: The New World War" last evening at the Annenberg Center. [Click to enlarge]

Amid multiple eruptions of applause, criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz kept hundreds of audience members on the edge of their seats last evening during his lecture, "Global Terrorism: The New World War."

Dershowitz, also a Harvard law professor, spoke last night in the Zellerbach Theater for the fourth-annual Israel Awareness event.

Although slated to speak on global terrorism, the talk focused instead on the alarming rise of anti-semitism and what Dershowitz described as growing "delegitimization" of Israel.

The talk, running over two hours to an audience sold out by Monday, was heated and fast-paced and even included a brief outburst during the question-and-answer session that required security guards to remove a disruptive audience member.

The night started out with disconcerting statistics of European anti-semitism. According to Malcolm Hoenlein, vice chairman of the Congress of Jewish Presidents and opening speaker for Dershowitz, BBC polls have shown that 56 percent of Europeans find Israel to be "the most disgusting nation in the world," and that, in the United States, Jews are four times more likely to be the victims of hate than their Muslim counterparts.

Both Dershowitz and Hoenlein contended that anti-Israeli sentiments were for the most part redirected feelings of anti-semitism. "It's not politically correct to attack a Jew openly," Hoenlein said. "So they attack the state that represents them."

Dershowitz, an avid civil rights activist, openly voiced his dismay at recent human rights organizations for their misguided focus on Israel over what he sees as other, more pressing issues.

The Human Rights Watch, he noted, wrongly claimed that Hezbollah, a militant Islamic group based in Lebanon, never hid their forces behind Lebanese civilians in an attempt to demonize Israeli military actions in last summer's war, even after well-documented evidence to the contrary surfaced.

Groups like Human Rights Watch "have become human wrongs organizations," Dershowtiz said. "They spend more time [focused] on Israel … than on Darfur, more time on Israel … than on cultural genocide in Tibet."

College senior Aaron Rock said that "Dershowitz is very effective as an advocate for Israel and comes across as very reasonable."

Gabriela Kipnis, also College senior, added that "it was empowering to hear an academic and intelligent moderate speak on the issue - he was tremendously fair."

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