Did Alan Dershowitz Lift Source Material from a Colossal Fraud?
Press Action
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/spinoza10022003/
By Abu Spinoza*
Professor Norman Finkelstein has uncovered a pattern of lifting of source materials in Alan Dershowitz’s recent book, The Case for Israel. According to Finkelstein, these patterns suggest either scandalous scholarship or plagiarism or both. What is quite interesting is that Dershowitz, who is professor at Harvard Law School, has relied on Joan Peter’s well-known fraud, From Time Immemorial. It was Finkelstein, professor at DePaul University in Chicago, who had first discovered and exposed Peters’ hoax when he was a graduate student at Princeton. He is familiar with Peters’ colossal fraud. He is thus able to pinpoint and locate the quotes. Finkelstein has published a table that list some 20 quotations that Dershowtiz appeared to have appropriated from Peters’ book, which is regarded by serious academics as a hoax aimed at propagating the discredited Israeli claim that Palestine was a land without a people.
Alan Dershowtiz is one of most well known lawyers in the United States. He is famed for his role in O.J. Simpson case. He is also a noted apologist for Israel’s brutality and occupation. Dershowitz is known to have urged the Israeli government to destroy Palestinian villages in response to terror attacks. This is a form of collective punishment at odds with international law and morality.
Finkelstein’s findings have already generated some interest in the media. In a Democracy Now program on Dershowitz’s book, Finkelstein said, “Mr. Dershowitz has concocted a fraud. In fact Mr. Dershowitz has concocted a fraud which amazingly in large parts he plagiarized from another fraud.” Alexander Cockburn, a columnist for The Nation, has written an article on it. Harvard University’s student newspaper, The Crimson, has a story on Dershowitz’s alleged plagiarism. In a letter to the editor of The Crimison, Dershowtiz has subsequently denied these charges and said, “I am proud of my book. I did nothing even arguably wrong.” Finkelstein has replied to Dershowitz’s Letter in The Crimson. It remains to be seen whether the mainstream media will follow-up on these serious allegations of scandalous scholarship or plagiarism against a flamboyant Harvard law professor.
Finkelstein’s charges ought to be taken seriously. He is the author of four books: The Holocaust Industry, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, A Nation on Trial, and The Rise and Fall of Palestine. As a scholar, Finkelstein has investigated and exposed the shoddy scholarship of Joan Peters, Daniel Goldhagen, and Michael Ore among others. His website, www.normanfinkelstein.com, contains a wealth of material on Israel-Palestine conflict and the Goldhagen Affair. Updated coverage of the Dershowtiz affair is available on his wepage
under the title of Dershowitz hoax.
Harvard University and its law school itself ought to initiate a full investigation of what appears to be a serious lapse in scholarly standard and judgment on the part of professor Alan Dershowitz. It is hoped that world’s most prestigious university will uphold generally accepted scholarly standards.
*Abu Spinoza is a pseudonym for an economist. He is a columnist for Press Action.