Students are crying censorship, and the dean’s office is defending school policy after an impromptu prelude to a lecture concerning the controversial Palestine-Israel conflict at the Loyola College of Law.

On Oct. 17, Alison Weir, a journalist and pro-Palestinian activist, visited the College of Law to give a lecture to students, faculty and community members. Before Laura Hammad, president of the Public Interest Law Group that had invited Weir to speak, introduced Weir, College of Law Dean Brian Bromberger approached the podium and stated that, had he reviewed Weir’s writings earlier, he “would not have given permission.”

Bromberger told the audience that Weir’s research and presentation did not meet the “threshold of academic merit” demanded by the College of Law, and that as dean he takes responsibility for any speakers that visit the school.

“Students are intelligent and able to think for themselves,” Weir said in a phone interview from her office in Washington, D.C. “I’m concerned about students who have a dean who doesn’t care about the freedom of scholarly inquiry. This is a finer-tuned censorship.”

Alison Weir is the founder of Ifamericansknew.org, which, according to its mission statement, seeks to “educate the American public on issues of major significance that are unreported, underreported or misreported in the American media.”

Weir left her position as editor of a small newspaper in California and traveled to Gaza and the West Bank in February of 2001 as a freelance journalist. She now writes and lectures on what she feels is unbalanced media coverage of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

“The purpose for bringing Ms. Weir was not to change minds, or offend members of the community,” Hammad said. “The purpose was to make known a contrary point of view on a topic that is relevant to today’s current foreign and domestic policy.”

Bromberger explained his public disclaimer in a recent interview.

“Students said they wanted a speaker to come and that she was a journalist who had spent time in the Middle East,” Bromberger said.

“After seeing her Web site … I don’t deny I blanched,” Bromberger said. “She uses statistics in a manner that I regard as being inaccurate. It’s not the substance that’s being censored, it’s the lack of academic merit that’s being censored.”

Bromberger referred to what he considered inaccuracies in Weir’s graphs comparing civilian deaths on either side of the conflict. He said that she compared civilian deaths while Palestine has no standing army, thus slanting the numbers in Palestine’s favor. Weir answered that she compared only civilian deaths and that armed combatants on either side were not included in her statistics.

Also in contention are basic facts of history concerning the upheaval following the establishment of Israel in 1948. Bromberger insists that the “War of Liberation,” as it is known to the Israelis, or what Palestinians the “Catastrophe” was begun by aggression from neighboring Arab nations.

“You will find this statement is consistent with every acknowledged text, yet Ms. Weir asserts that the Israelis started the war,” Bromberg said. “You can’t debate an issue unless both sides are prepared to accept facts.”

Weir presented contrary information at her presentation, and defends her right to question historical record.

“This suggestion that a piece of history can’t be debated is absurd,” Weir said. “His claims are inconsistent with the well-respected books of Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, American Middle East expert and former Time Magazine Bureau Chief Donald Neff, and numerous others.”

Hammad defends her group’s endorsement of Weir.

“Ms. Weir has spoken at Loyola Marymount, Loyola Chicago, Harvard,

Yale, Columbia, etcetera,” Hammad said. “To have the Dean of the law school stand up and openly declare, in front of the speaker he has already approved and nearly 70 students, faculty, and members of the community, that he would not have given permission for her to come if he had read her work prior to giving his approval, is simply unprofessional and contrary to the American ethos-especially in light of the Jesuit tradition and ideals of Loyola.”

“If the students feel that this person is an acknowledged scholar we accept it,” Bromberger said. “Had I read her stuff earlier I would have suggested that they find someone who was academically sound.”

“I don’t know what other deans do, and I don’t care what other deans do,” Bromberg said. “Rightly or wrongly I thought it was my job. I thought it was my duty on behalf of the school to put to the audience what was the law school’s position.”

Weir said the overall message is simple: “The Israel-Palestine issue is such a deeply important issue, central to the conflict in the Middle East. It needs to be on campuses.”

Maggie Calmes can be reached at [email protected].