Promoting dialogue
To the Editor:
An Oct. 9, 2006 article in the Washington Post concluded that the charges of “Holocaust denier” leveled against Princeton Ph.D. and DePaul professor Norman Finkelstein “have proved baseless.” So why does Alan Dershowitz continue to smear Finkelstein, a child of a Holocaust survivors? This attempt to eliminate discussion of Israel by labeling its critics as “anti-Semitic” is misleading and offensive.
The inability to fully and freely discuss Israel’s history and current policies prolongs reaching a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Furthermore, by urging his audience to pressure our co-sponsors into rescinding their support for today’s talk, Dershowitz is questioning their integrity and intellectual capacity.
Yesterday, Penn Students for Justice in Palestine began Palestine Awareness Week. The goal of this week is to create an open forum for productive dialogue while exposing people to some of the realities of life for Palestinians still living under the brutal Israeli occupation.
We hope that members of the student body, who are here to learn and to challenge what they think they know, will take advantage of this opportunity.
Matthew Richman, Sara Barclay & Alexis Orenstein
The authors are members of Penn Students for Justice in Palestine