To the Editor:

I think I have read almost every book Professor Norman Finkelstein has written. He is on my "automatic buy" list along with Noam Chomsky and a handful of others. Professor Finkelstein is an outstanding scholar who has had and will continue to have a momentous impact on Middle East Studies.

It is a disgrace that DePaul University–which purports to be Catholic–succumbed to political pressure and inflicted this grave injustice upon Professor Finkelstein at the behest of Alan Derhsowitz and his Neo-Conservative confederates.

As for Dershowitz, he is a self-incriminated war criminal who publicly admitted that he serves on a Mossad Committee that authorizes the murder and assassination of Palestinians, which constitutes a grave violation of the Geneva Conventions and thus a serious war crime. Dershowitz is also infamous around the world for being this country’s foremost advocate for torture.

SEE: "The Jihad of Alan Dershowitz," by Liaquat Ali Khan, CounterPunch, September 30, 2004.

In my opinion it is Professor Finkelstein who far better represents the real values and ethos of the Jewish People. In any event, it is a shame that the University named after St. Vincent DePaul has allied itself with Dershowitz against the courageous Norman Finkelstein. Unlike Dershowitz, Professor Finkelstein has always spoken the Truth to those in Power. By comparison, Dershowitz is nothing more than an Errand Boy for those in Power. But as St. Vincent DePaul University should have understood: "You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free!"
 
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of Law
University of Illinois College of Law