Immediately after Hampshire College announced they had divested from the Israeli occupation, there was another story that Professor Alan Dershowitz had made threatening phone calls to students who had worked to pass the divestment. This seemed like an odd story – how would Dershowitz get student's private phone numbers? And while he might be expected to create a media circus out of this, would he really try to harass and intimidate students?
Ends up that he would. Below is a written description of the events of the morning of Thursday, February 12, the morning of the divestment announcement. This was written by Brian Van Slyke and it also mentions another Hampshire student, Matan Cohen. Cohen is an Israeli activist who has done amazing work to protest the separation wall in the West Bank. I know of Cohen because he was shot in the face by the Israeli military at a nonviolent protest in the village of Bil'in. Sounds like Dershowitz is familiar with him as well.
Brian Van Slyke:
It was Thursday morning and we had just broken to the press. Already we were terrified, mind you we were about to take on one of the world's most powerful political machines. What's more is that we were a little unprepared, as a local newspaper was coming out with the story a day early and so we had to go all out sooner than we expected (lest the media pick up on the story for a full day without our voices out there).
I woke up a little later than I had planned on. I knew we were about to get flooded with phone calls from the media and I didn't want them to wake me up and not be ready for their questions. Already people were running around the house, pacing with nervousness, on the phone with the media and arguing in Hebrew, or in the bathroom about to lose their breakfast.
Soon, everyone left but Matan and I. I came out of my room after responding to some e-mails from reporters and Matan came up to me:
"Brian, I just got off the phone with Alan Dershowitz."
I was still a little tired, and I didn't quite get it. "Wait, who?"
"Alan Dershowitz"
This woke me up. "What did he say?"
Matan smiled, "He said: I should have known you were involved. Then he went on to say he's going to organize a boycott of me and of the college."
"Oh." We knew we might be hearing from Dershowitz, but certainly not only after an hour or so of being out to the press. That was a little intimidating. "How did he get your number?" I asked. Matan didn't know.
About 20 minutes later I got a call from Andrew, another SJPer. "Listen, Brian, I just got a call from Alan Dershowitz. He's threatening to organize an international divestment campaign of Hampshire."
"What does that even mean?" I asked. Andrew didn't know.
A little bit later, I got a phone call. I thought it was my first reporter. I grabbed the cell phone, started pacing, and answered.
"Hello, Brian?"
"Yes."
"Hi, this is Professor Alan Dershowitz. I'm calling to find out if Hampshire College divested from Israel."
My heart sank. I was not ready for this. I stumbled: "I don't know, you should read our press release. Which I also think says we divested from the Israeli occupation, not Israel."
"I have read your press release. And I'm asking you."
"Okay, well look, I don't think I'm going to talk to you about this."
"Wh-"
"Listen, I'm not going to talk to you. Sorry, bye." Click. I hung up the phone. I called up the stairs to Matan:
"Matan… I think I just did something bad. I think I just hung up on Alan Dershowitz."
"Good," Matan replied.
