Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax on Wednesday that Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and its supporters, "like [Mahmoud] Khalil," don't want peace and an end to the 17-month war in Gaza.
Israel launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, killing more than 400, after Hamas refused the Jewish state's requests to change the ceasefire agreement, which had been in place since January.
"I support the American position," Dershowitz said on "Newsline." "The American position is that this is completely Hamas' fault, that Hamas had an option. They could have handed over five or six or seven live hostages in exchange for probably ... hundreds of prisoners. But Hamas doesn't want peace. Hamas wants continuing warfare, and so do its supporters, like Khalil in the United States, who are also being deported. So, we have a fifth column in the United States of people who hate America or hate Israel, hate Jews, and many of them, like Khalil, may very well have obtained their visa and their green cards fraudulently and illegally."
The State Department revoked the green card of Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate, for his involvement in organizing the anti-Israel protests that roiled the New York City school's campus last year. He is fighting the Trump administration's deportation orders.
Dershowitz said he gets "really annoyed" when "Harvard Law School professors chant and join demonstrations on behalf of Khalil, without saying what I said when I defended the rights of Nazis to speak at Skokie, [Illinois]."
"I hate the Nazis," Dershowitz said. "They're miserable, they have horrible points of view, but I defend the rights of free speech. That's what they should be saying about Khalil. But the Harvard Law professors and the Harvard Law students are not saying that. They're basically supporting Khalil's position."
The Syrian-born Khalil is reportedly a citizen of Algeria and is "no different than a supporter of Nazism," Dershowitz said, adding that he hopes Columbia will release more information about Khalil's activities.
"Columbia today announced that it would give in to most of the demands of the Trump administration in order to get their $500 million back, and I hope that includes giving us information about Khalil and about other pro-Hamas, anti-American people who go way, way beyond free speech," Dershowitz said. "These are people who had encampments, who blocked Jewish students from going to campuses. Where is the ACLU on behalf of the Jewish students' free speech, academic freedom?"
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