Famed lawyer and political commentator Alan Dershowitz lectured about the broad range of issues surrounding Israel at the University of Miami Hillel on Wednesday night.
Dershowitz, who famously served as appellate advisor for the successful defense of O.J. Simpson in his murder trial and also previously defended Mike Tyson, spoke as a self-proclaimed voice of Israel.
“I press the arguments that Tel Avivians and Jerusalemites would agree on,” he said.
Dershowitz was very outspoken in his support of separating the states of Israel and Palestine into individual political bodies, and he feels this stance is common throughout the Middle East.
“I think everybody, on both sides of the conflict, all support the separation of the two states,” he said. “This solution is no harder to achieve today than it was in 1993 [during the Oslo Accords] or 2000 and 2001 [during the Camp David Summit].”
Joey Newfeld, the president of the Hillel, was ecstatic to have Dershowitz speak on campus.
“I think it’s a huge thing, not just for Hillel as an organization but for the students at the University of Miami,” he said.
Dershowitz is currently a professor at Harvard Law School, a position he has held since he was 28 years old, when he was the youngest professor of law in Harvard’s history.
For students eager to learn more about Israel’s history and the nature of the conflict surrounding it, Professor Dershowitz recommended the novel “The Source” by James Michener. Dershowitz himself has published numerous books, including “Taking the Stand: My Life in Law,” and “Abraham: The World’s First (But Certainly Not Last) Jewish Lawyer.”
Correction: An extraneous paragraph was appended to this story.