“If any attorney had said this, we would have taken the same action,” he said. “This far transcends religion. It has to do with the way it was said and what it called for.”

But Dershowitz said the debate essentially concerns the First Amendment. “It’s a dispute between those who would censor and those who would exercise free speech,” he said.

Dershowitz said he was also curious why the MLDEF has not sought to discipline pro-Palestinian lawyers who advocate murdering civilians.

Last March, Justice for Palestine, a pro-Palestinian group at Harvard Law School, protested outside of Dershowitz’s classroom in reponse to the op-ed.

“We said that a law professor should not openly advocate crimes,” said Sam Foster Halabi, a second-year law student and President of Justice for Palestine. “As I read this action, it has nothing to do with Dershowitz’s private opinion, it has to do with the fact that we have a lawyer advocating collective punishment.”

However, pro-Israel students also expressed support for Dershowitz.

“That the MLDEF would take this as an opportunity to oust one of the country’s premier academics rather than to address the real issues of the Palestinian intifada is disheartening though not surprising,” said Eric R. Trager ’05, a member of Harvard Students for Israel.

Throughout his career, Dershowitz has been known as a free speech advocate. Yesterday he spoke out in favor of controversial poet Tom Paulin.

“He wants to kill Jews and they’re complaining that I said to knock down a few buildings that harbor terrorists,” Dershowitz said. “It’s hypocrisy run rampant.”