OP-ED: Sapere Aude! (Dare to think for yourself)

By: Norman Finkelstein

Posted: 2/13/07

Rarely (if ever) does a professor from one university write for a school newspaper at another university urging its student body not to invite a particular speaker.

But it is not hard to fathom why Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz took such an extraordinary step.

In 2005 I published a scholarly study, Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History (University of California Press), copiously documenting that Dershowitz had plagiarized large swaths of his book The Case for Israel from an earlier academic hoax and-what's worse yet-that he had grossly falsified Israel's human rights record.

Prior to publication, my book went through extensive peer review, and its published version contained glowing comments from a university chair at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a university chair at Oxford, a senior researcher at Harvard, a university chair at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a university chair at the University of California at Berkeley, all of whom, incidentally, are Jewish. Professor Baruch Kimmerling of Hebrew U called the book "the most comprehensive, systematic, and well-documented work of its kind."

Fearful of being exposed, Dershowitz embarked on a desperate campaign to suppress the book's publication. He enlisted the reputedly most powerful law firm in the country to threaten UC Press with a libel suit that would bankrupt it.

When UC Press stood firm, Dershowitz beseeched California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to block publication. To his credit, the governor refused to intervene on grounds of academic freedom.

Having failed to suppress my book, Dershowitz has engaged in a virtual jihad to prevent me from getting tenure and from speaking anywhere else on the grounds that I am not a serious scholar.

The first of Dershowitz's allegations is that I misrepresented facts in the campaign for Holocaust compensation against Swiss banks. Yet, here's what the world's leading authority on the Nazi holocaust, Raul Hilberg, had to say on this specific matter:

"Finkelstein was actually conservative, moderate, and his conclusions are trustworthy. He is a well-trained political scientist, has the ability to do the research, did it carefully, and has come up with the right results. I am by no means the only one who, in the coming months or years, will totally agree with Finkelstein's breakthrough."

To assemble his charge sheet against me, Dershowitz apparently did a Google search of my name. Consider the results, however, if you Google Dershowitz's name: The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel accused Dershowitz of making "blatantly false and utterly preposterous" statements; the main national Jewish newspaper, The Forward, reported that "not a word ... is true" in the self-promoting passage of a speech Dershowitz delivered; a respected Amherst College professor suggested, in a scholarly review of Dershowitz's book Rights From Wrongs, that parts of it "are in conflict with one another because they were written by different hands"; and senior Harvard Law School librarian Harry S. Martin denied Dershowitz's repeated claim that he had exonerated Dershowitz of plagiarism charges.

Unlike the charges in my case, these charges against Dershowitz possess the merit of being true. Nonetheless, I would certainly defend his right to speak at Brandeis. I have full confidence in the ability of Brandeis students to weigh the facts for themselves and reach reasonable conclusions. It should likewise be obvious that Brandeis students require no preemptive protection from what I have to say.

In answer to the question "What is Enlightenment?" Immanuel Kant famously replied, "Sapere Aude! (Dare to think for yourself!)" It would be a pity if Dershowitz's advice is heeded and Brandeis students are deprived of this method of education.