Mendacious Misreporting

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I don't know anything about John Larew, except that he is a careless and mendacious misreporter of truth, and that everything he says should be viewed against the background of the reality. How do I know this? Because of how he characterizes my own views on Israel. Everything he says about my views is demonstrably false. He accuses me of defending "year-long detainment without trial," and "no due process" in Israel. If Larew had simply bothered to read the published record, he would have seen that I have been opposed to administrative detention without due process for nearly 20 years. I have written against the practice, lectured against it in Israel as recently as last year and helped to restrict the practice in Israel.

What bothers people like Larew is that I am also opposed to due process violations in Arab countries and within the P.L.O. and that I try to make my criticism of Israel in a comparative context. If that makes me a zealot, my zealotry is on behalf of fairness and equality.

I challenge Mr. Larew to name me a single prominent Palestinian who has been as critical of the P.L.O. as I have been of Israel.

Everyone concerned about double standards in the enforcement of human rights should reject Larew's campaign of vilification against the one country in the Middle East that has an independent judiciary deeply committed to due process. Alan M. Dershowitz   Professor of Law