“Remember the solidarity shown to Palestine here and everywhere… and remember also that there is a cause to which many people have committed themselves, difficulties and terrible obstacles notwithstanding. Why? Because it is a just cause, a noble ideal, a moral quest for equality and human rights.”

    -Prof. Edward W. Said (1935-2003)

On the Attacks on Edward Said by Francis Boyle

Justus Weiner is a Fanatical Racist

by Francis Boyle
26 Aug 1999

Dear Colleagues,

I will not dignify reading what Justus Weiner has said about my friend Edward Said, as reported in today’s New York Times. I remember the first time I met Weiner back in 1982 while Israel was invading Lebanon and I was over there to investigate Israeli violations of Palestinian Human Rights.

On that subject, I met with Weiner in his capacity as the lawyer On the Staff of the Israeli Ministry of Justice that was supposed to be in charge of protecting the human rights of Palestinians. Of course, he could not care less about them. It was a highly contentious meeting. Toward the end thereof, I raised the subject of Nuremberg Accountability for what Israel was doing to the Palestinian People. Of course, he became irate. I then told Weiner that there were even Jewish American Professors of International Law such as John Fried and Richard Falk who was raising the question of Nuremberg Accountability for what the Israeli government was doing to the Palestinian People. I shall never forget Weiner’s response:

“There are large numbers of self-hating Jews living in America. That is why I moved to Israel.”

Well before Weiner was born, Professor John Fried helped prosecute Nazis at Nuremberg. And most people consider Richard Falk to be the quintessence of the courage, integrity, and principle so characteristic of the Jewish People. The same was true for Professor John Fried. At that point, I realized I was wasting my time talking to a fanatical anti-Arab racist such as Justus Weiner. So I terminated the conversation. My advice would be that we do the same about his charges against Edward Said.

Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law

Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Avenue
Champaign, Ill. 61820
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
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Correction:

That was 1986 when I first met Weiner, and we had that conversation. And there were others present. I had also been in Israel in 1982 during the Lebanon Invasion.

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