Full event details and announcement at http://tinyurl.com/bdsdebate

** Please note that the previous debater, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, withdrew from the debate **

Motion to be debated: Is Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel counterproductive to the pursuit of a just peace in the Middle East?

Featuring:

Omar Barghouti

Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian researcher, commentator and human rights activist committed to upholding international law and universal human rights. He is a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and of the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, NY.

George P. Fletcher

George P. Fletcher is regarded as one of the leading scholars in the United States in the fields of torts and criminal law, in particular, comparative and international criminal law. He will have two books published in 2009. His first novel, The Bond, will appear in the fall. The second book, which discusses tort liability in international cases, is already published under the title Tort Liability for Human Rights Abuses. Fletcher remains best known for his first academic treatise, the seminal 1978 work Rethinking Criminal Law, which has been the subject of symposia and is still regarded as one of the most important books on criminal law published in the past century. He has since published eight critically acclaimed books that approach legal issues from unique and unpredictable angles. His works focus on everything from the nature of loyalty to the political philosophy of Abraham Lincoln.


Moderated by GritTV host Laura Flanders

Laura Flanders is the host of "GRITtv with Laura Flanders," a news and culture discussion program on Free Speech TV (Dish Network ch. 9415) and online at the popular blog site Firedoglake.com as well as at GRITtv.org. Flanders is the author of Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians (Penguin Books, 2007) and BUSHWOMEN: Tales of a Cynical Species (Verso, 2004). As part of the original-line up on Air America Radio, she hosted "The Laura Flanders Show” and “RadioNation.” .An author and broadcaster for more than 20 years, Flanders was founding director of the Women's Desk at the media watch group, FAIR, where she hosted CounterSpin, FAIR's syndicated radio show. Before joining Air America when it went on the air in March 2004, Laura launched and hosted the award-winning "Your Call," on public radio, KALW, in San Francisco.



Hosted by the Arab Students Association and Sponsored by the Middle East Institute, both at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs


Also in NYC: Omar Barghouti will be at New York University on November 6, 2009:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=168549981045