PRINCETON: University hosts speaker with controversial views

A controversial figure known for his contentious comments on Israel, the Boston Marathon bombings and 9/11 spoke at Princeton University Tuesday evening.

By Jennifer Kohlhepp, Staff Writer
   A controversial figure known for his contentious comments on Israel, the Boston Marathon bombings and 9/11 spoke at Princeton University Tuesday evening.
   Princeton University invited Richard A. Falk, a Jewish professor emeritus at the university, to deliver an annual lecture named for the late Palestinian scholar and activist Edward Said but during the latter portion of the seminar audience members questioned Mr. Falk about his personal views.
   Mr. Falk thanked the sponsors of the seminar including the Princeton Committee on Palestine and the Department of English for their bravery in inviting him. He said it was a challenge for him to talk about Mr. Said, who he connected with while attending Princeton and later became friends.
   Mr. Said was a Palestinian born in Jerusalem who came of age in Beirut and was awakened to the political dimensions of Palestine in the aftermath of the 1967 war in which “Israel gained total victory,” according to Mr. Falk.
   As a political intellectual, Mr. Said argued for the establishment of a Palestinian state for equal political and human rights for Palestinians in Israel, including the right of return, and for the United States to increase political pressure on Israel to recognize those rights.
   After the lecture Mr. Falk fielded questions from the audience.
   When asked about the Israeli West Bank barrier, Mr. Falk said, “Many think it’s Israel’s two-state solution.”
   ”It was promoted to make a psychological argument and built to seize additional Palestinian land,” Mr. Falk said.
   Mr. Falk faced criticism from some audience members including being called an anti-Semite and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.
   Mr. Falk said he can speak critically of Israel without being an anti-Semite and said to call people like himself anti-Semitic is a disgrace when compared to those who exhibit hatred of Jews.
   When asked about 9/11, Mr. Falk said, “There are unanswered questions that the American people deserve answers about. I don’t pretend to have the knowledge to refute or endorse the official report.”
   In response to a question about his views on the Boston Marathon bombings, Mr. Falk said he believes a number of American policies around the world are generating hostile responses, some of which are sociopathological extremes.
   With regard to some of his and Mr. Said’s ideas being unpopular, Mr. Falk said it’s important not to give into intimidation.
   ”(Mr. Said) took ideas seriously and in my experience he would not seek false agreement or harmony because of this dedication to the importance of ideas in the lives of intellectuals and the life of the body politic,” Mr. Falk said.