Attorney and Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz will speak at Duke University Sunday, April 17, to counter the "demonizing of Israel" he said he hears in campus debates about the Middle East and to advocate "engagement with the peace process."
"I am going to critique the extremists on both sides who want absolutes and not compromise," he said in an interview.
The 1 p.m. speech, in Page Auditorium on Duke's West Campus, is free and open to the public. Seating preference will be given to people with Duke IDs and those who e-mail courtney.wisotsky@duke.edu to reserve seats.
Dershowitz is a prolific author and legal commentator, as well as a high-profile attorney known for defending such clients as financier Michael Milken and televangelist Jim Bakker.
Dershowitz is the keynote speaker for Jewish Awareness Week at Duke, which is being held April 15 to 22.
His talk, "The Case for Israel," builds on his book of the same title. In it, Dershowitz defends Israel against such charges as "Israel's actions, more than those of any other nation, warrant divestment and boycott" and "Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza are the major barrier to peace."
His responses: Divestment campaigns seek to "convey to college students the false notion that Israel is among the worst human rights violators in the world" and "the real barrier [to peace] has been the unwillingness of many Palestinians, and many Palestinian terrorist groups and nations, to accept the existence of a Jewish state in any part of Palestine."
"All too often, today's debate, especially on university campuses, is characterized by contentious and one-sided accusations made by those seeking to demonize Israel," Dershowitz writes in "The Case for Israel." "They are often answered by far more candid acknowledgements of wrongdoing by defenders of Israel and a tone of apology that often panders to the accusers."
Courtney Wisotsky, program coordinator at the FreemanCenter for Jewish Life, said the center had planned to invite Dershowitz to speak since last summer. But since the Palestine Solidarity Movement Conference at Duke last fall, "it became even more timely to add him to our yearlong Israel Initiative."
Dershowitz said his talk is not specifically in response to the PSM conference and its organizers. But, he added, "I don't think they're pushing the process to a peace. I think their rejection of a two-state solution is counterproductive."