First Assistant Bar Counsel Nancy E. Kaufman said that MLDEF can ask for a review of the decision. But Fazili said yesterday the group is not sure whether it will appeal the decision.

Dershowitz said he does not think that the MLDEF will ask for a review of the decision.

“I don’t think they’ll do anything that doesn’t get them publicity,” Dershowitz said. “They know they’re not going to get anywhere. They knew from the beginning.”

Students who support both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides have mixed opinions about the complaint and its dismissal. Harvard Students for Israel President David B. Adelman ’04 said the organization believed the charges were not going to provoke action from the bar association.

“While many of us might not necessarily agree with what Dershowitz said, he is free to say those things as a lawyer and not feel like he should be reprimanded for it,” Adelman said.

Although the complaint was dismissed, Justice for Palestine President Sam Foster Halabi said he thought that the MLDEF would nonetheless benefit.

“The great success of the whole action was to bring to life that lawyers have particular responsibilities,” said Halabi, a second-year student at Harvard Law School. “Even with Massachusetts saying his speech was within First Amendment bounds, there was great success in raising the issue.”

Dershowitz said he disapproves of the way the MLDEF used the bar counsel office’s disciplinary mechanism and is considering filing a complaint of his own against the group.

“They may be in trouble. They have free speech rights to say whatever they want about me, but lawyers have an obligation to protect [due] process,” Dershowitz said. “And a part of my obligation is to file a complaint against them for abusive process.”