Resisting Trump’s Consigliere Dershowitz at the University of Illinois
My own University of Illinois College of Law invited Trump’s consigliere Alan Dershowitz to give a speech at the Foellinger Auditorium on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on April 26, 2018. Truly appalling! In shocked reaction thereto, I called for and helped organize a protest rally there that evening in front of the building while Dershowitz was speaking inside. Below is the Keynote Address I gave with a bull-horn in hand so that everyone outside and inside could hear what I had to say:
My name is Francis Boyle. I am the Senior Professor of Law here at the University of Illinois College of Law. That means that I have taught here longer than anyone else. I am now in my fortieth year of teaching law here.
I am here to condemn not only Dershowitz but the entire College of Law for inviting him in here and sponsoring him. They know full well Dershowitz is a war criminal and they could not care less. They could not care less! They invited him in here, this war criminal, knowing full well that Dershowitz is a member of a Mossad Committee that approves the murder and assassination of Palestinians, which is a war crime.
Indeed the Consort of our former Dean Hurricane Heidi Hurd, Mikey Moore admitted that he works for the Mossad and the C.I.A. I kid you not! Dershowitz believes he’s part of the übermensch and the same is true for Hurricane Heidi Hurd and her Consort Mikey Moore. They have been stinking up this Campus and the Law School and this Community and the Legal Profession by advocating torture in and out and all the time just like Dershowitz who is speaking in there tonight. Torture in war time is also a war crime!
We have a war criminal in there under the sponsorship of the Nazi College of Law. Carl Schmitt would be proud of them all – the foremost Nazi “jurist” of his time who justified every hideous atrocity Hitler and the Nazis inflicted on everyone including the Jews. That is exactly what Dershowitz has done to People of Color all over the world and especially Muslims of Color.
Now in addition, Dershowitz has also advocated the serial destruction of Palestinian villages. Repeatedly he has done that, including in an editorial he wrote for the Jerusalem Post on March 11, 2002. This is a war crime in violation of the Nuremberg Charter and Judgment that convicted and condemned to death Nazi war criminals. Here let me quote from the relevant section of Article 6 of the 1945 Nuremberg Charter that the United States drafted and signed:
Article 6
…
The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be individual responsibility:
…
(b) WAR CRIMES: namely, violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to…wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity;…
That is exactly what Dershowitz has advocated to be done to the Palestinians. A Nuremberg War Crime right there in the Nuremberg Charter just like the Nazis did throughout Europe during World War II. In addition, Dershowitz published it on purpose over in Israel in order to incite the Israeli government to destroy Palestinian villages. The direct incitement of Nuremberg Crimes is a war crime in its own right. And the College of Law knowing this full well nevertheless brings Dershowitz in here to advocate torture, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against Palestinians and Muslims of Color in this country and all over the world.
Also, Dershowitz deliberately went onto Fox News to encourage Trump, their biggest fan, to bomb Syria. He incited Trump to bomb Syria and that is a Nuremberg Crime Against Peace, an act of aggression, a war crime as defined by international law. It also violated the United Nations Charter, the War Powers Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Congress’s own War Powers Resolution of 1973.
Dershowitz also attacked Professor Israel Shahak, one of the leaders of the peace movement in Israel, and a Holocaust survivor himself – unfortunately, no longer with us, but a great man. I have dealt with Shahak and have great respect for him. Indeed, he was going to have a lecture tour here in the United States in the Fall of 1990 and was coming to speak in Champaign. The organizers of his lecture tour asked me if I would put him up in my home as my guest in order to conserve on expenses, and I agreed. I was greatly looking forward again to meeting Professor Shahak. But with the Gulf crisis, Professor Shahak decided to cancel his lecture tour and stay at home with his own people, which was certainly understandable. Dershowitz couldn’t care less! Whatever kind of outright character assassination he has to apply to anyone, even a Holocaust survivor like Professor Shahak, it doesn’t bother Dershowitz. That’s how shameless Dershowitz is, publicly attacking a Holocaust survivor!
He attacked and inflicted character assassination on Norman Finkelstein’s Mother, another Holocaust survivor. Finally, he destroyed Norman Finkelstein’s academic career because Norman exposed him as a great and gross plagiarist in his book Beyond Chutzpah. Norman Finkelstein published a book with the University of California Press, a most distinguished press, criticizing Dershowitz and definitively proving that Dershowitz is a plagiarist. What did Dershowitz do? He set out to persecute Norman Finkelstein, a fellow Jew, and then he got Finkelstein denied tenure at DePaul University – that says it’s “Catholic” – and destroyed Norman’s entire academic career. Norman can no longer get into a tenure-track slot anywhere in this country or even abroad.
Now that’s free speech for Alan Dershowitz! If you criticize him, he will destroy you as he did Norman Finkelstein. Don’t ever forget it! So this guy even does dirty work against Fellow Jews. I know that our friends from Jewish Voices for Peace are here today as a matter of principle in opposing Dershowitz’s presence.
Finally, for the last year now Dershowitz has been running all over the country defending Trump. Think about that! Defending Trump all up and down in any way and in any capacity he can, defending Trump. Indeed, just read the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette yesterday. Dershowitz had dinner with Trump, giving legal advice to Trump. This is now the second Trump legal henchman that the College of Law has brought onto this campus. The last one was a high-level Trump legal apparatchik in the Trump/Sessions Department of Injustice that is arguing all of Trump’s cases for him in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The entire College of Law Faculty know exactly where I stand on these issues. Indeed they hired me to teach criminal law, international law, and international human rights law. I know a war criminal when I see him and it’s Dershowitz! Please join me:
Hey! Hey!
Dershowitz say!
How many kids!
Did you kill today!
Hey! Hey!
Dershowitz say!
How many kids!
Did you kill today!
Hey! Hey!
Dershowitz say!
How many kids!
Did you kill today!
Thank you.
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (phone)
217-244-1478 (fax)
(personal comments only)
