Below is a recording of the September 192021, simulation with Professor Alan Dershowitz
Professor Alan M. Dershowitz teaches law at Harvard university. He specializes in civil liberties, individual rights and criminal law. He is also known as “Israel’s single most visible attorney in the court of public opinion. He published many books and articles including “The case for Israel “, “The case against Israel’s enemies” and “the case against BDS “.
Professor Dershowitz was our guest speaker at this simulation.
In each simulation participants assume the role of Israeli prime minister, Hamas leader and Palestinian Authority president. The rest of the participants act as either Palestinian or Israeli IPC Parliament members.
The simulation requires participants to assume that nationwide elections were held for the entire area of Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. They are further asked to assume that 5 million people voted, 300 Parliament members, president and vice president were elected.
Professor Dershowitz readily accepted the assumptions noting that making assumptions is a useful tool to resolve issues.
While Professor Dershowitz attended the simulation, we focused all of our attention to the IPC Constitution which was overwhelmingly accepted by the IPC parliament.
Professor Dershowitz analyzed the IPC constitution from his preferred solution of Two States. He noted that the IPC formula is an “affirmative effort to try to resolve what up to now has been intractable problem “. He referred to the IPC formula for a common separate government with a veto power to the existing government as a “Utopic” solution but mentioned that utopic writing has had very strong influence on reality throughout history. Professor Dershowitz accepted as positive the veto power giving to the existing governments over the IPC as a safety valve against unreasonable or unilateral legislation that the IPC may pass. In his opinion the idea of having a separate government outside the Israeli and Palestinian govern would help both sides reach an agreement for a two-state solution and is certainly a positive thing for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people.
