On the Attacks on Edward Said .. Justus Weiner is a Fanatical Racist

by Boyle, Francis
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 were 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

Francis A. Boyle
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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Email: "Boyle, Francis" ,
Title: Correction: Justus Weiner: Fanatical  Racist
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 10:01:29 -0500


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. fab.


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