LETTER: The Human Cost of Conflict in the Middle East

To the editors:

As a member of the Harvard community and as a Jewish activist, I applaud your thoughtful condemnation of Martin Kramer’s comments regarding Palestinians and the tepid response from the Weatherhead Center. Too often in our public conversation, basic human rights standards and the civility we expect towards the “other” (Jewish, African-American, Hispanics, etc) are not applied to Palestinians who are living under unconscionable distress in Gaza and the West Bank due largely to the Israeli occupation. Combining that with the muzzling that occurs in the press with regard to accurate reporting from the region and the prejudices that haunt the attitudes and language of the media, the American public is largely unaware of the human realities of the conflict.

The Weatherhead Center needs to publicly distinguish between hateful, racist speech and open discourse in an academic setting.

ALICE ROTHCHILD

Cambridge, Mass.

Mar. 11, 2010

Alice Rothchild, M.D., is Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University.