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A January 26 article about former president Jimmy Carter’s lecture at Brandeis University claims that the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America was protesting the former president’s visit outside the auditorium where he spoke (“Carter Wins Over Student Crowd at Brandeis, Receives Ovation”).
In fact, while we strongly disagree with the premise of Carter’s book, and although we believe that students would have benefited more from a debate than from a lecture, we were not at Brandeis to demonstrate against the visit itself. Carter certainly has the right to speak wherever he pleases.
But we do believe that if people use their freedom of speech to spread falsehoods, it is vital that the falsehoods be corrected. We went to Brandeis for that very reason: to distribute flyers with factual information refuting some of Carter’s more egregious inaccuracies.
He falsely relayed that the Palestine Liberation Organization never advocated the destruction of Israel; that Hamas meticulously observed a 16-month cease-fire, and that the Camp David accords demanded Israel withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines. Those errors were rebutted on the flyers we distributed at Brandeis.
Gilead Ini
Senior Research Analyst
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
Boston, Mass.