UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS DARTMOUTH
NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA 02747-2300

NASEER H. ARURI
CHANCELLOR PROFESSOR EMERITUS
POLITICAL SCIENCE


Office (508) 999-8373
Home  (508) 994-3400
E-Mail   naruri@aol.com

31 August, 1999

Editor
The Boston Globe
Boston, MA

Dear Madam/Sir:

In his scurrilous attack against Professor Edward Said ("Professor Said's
Untrue Story," op ed, August 30), Jeff Jacoby joins a chorus of right-wing
Likudists bent not only on smearing Professor Said, but also, on trying to
undermine the internationally-guaranteed rights of the Palestinian people,
which Edward Said has come to symbolize. The right of return, which is
guaranteed by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, United Nations
General Assembly Resolution 194(lll), Security Council Resolution 237, and
countless other instruments, is the real target of this campaign,
spearheaded by something called the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
and by the magazine COMMENTARY, the voice of the American Jewish
Committee. Ironically, Jacoby has not bothered to scrutinize their
standards of truth and accuracy.

The right of return will be on top of the agenda of the approaching final
status negotiations of the Oslo process. That issue has been raised not
only by Palestinians, most of whose 7 million are classified as refugees,
but also by revisionist Israeli historians whose documentation of Israel's
ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in 1948 is beginning to penetrate
through the thick walls of self-censorship practiced by much of the U.S
media.

Jacoby's dissemination of the "research" funded by the Los Angeles-based
Miliken family foundation is not surprising, given a consistent pattern of
anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim writing ever since he joined the GLOBE.
Rarely does one find a match to such writing even in the mainstream
Israeli newspapers.  A review of Jacoby's op eds for 1998/99 demonstrates
this pattern. Recalling only one of his recent diatribes appearing on
7/12/99, he condemned President Clinton-recognized as the most pro-Israeli
President to date- for having answered a question at a press conference
saying that the Palestinians should be free to live wherever they want to
live.

Even the casual reader of the GLOBE can see that Jacoby has a mission. It
is time, however, that the fair standards of journalism, which Jacoby has
sanctimoniously preached be made applicable to him. Otherwise columnists
and propagandists will be one and the same.


Sincerely,


Naseer H. Aruri

____________________________________________________________________________
Email: Naruri@aol.com
To: msanews@msanews.mynet.net
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999