He claims a ‘forced confession’
The writings of a criminal convicted for his role in the murder of an Israeli will be the subject of discussion Tuesday at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
The event, in conjunction with the divinity school, will explore a book called “The Tale of the Wall” by Nasser Abu Srour. It comes out in 2025.
Srour will not be speaking at the event as he is currently in prison after confessing decades ago to his role in the murder of an “Israeli Shin Bet security agent” in 1993, according to an archived story in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Shin Bet is the country’s intelligence agency.
“The event page does not mention the fact that he was found to have participated in a murder — not by some military junta, but in a standard, civilian Israeli district court,” student Charles Covit wrote in The Crimson.
Rather, Covit wrote, the event says “his life sentence stemmed from a ‘forced confession’ for an unspecified crime.”
“It’s akin to scheduling a talk on the writings of would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh and calling it a discussion on the ‘manifesto of a radical revolutionary,’” Covit wrote.
“While CMES’s decision to platform Abu Srour is disappointing, it isn’t exactly surprising,” Covit wrote. “Based on the talks it has hosted and sponsored since Oct. 7, it seems to me that the Center is not quite a neutral forum for understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he wrote, before listing previous events that he viewed as being anti-Israel.
The publisher of the book responded to Covit’s criticism in The Crimson and called Srour’s story “valuable.”
Publisher Judith Gurewich quoted the results of an investigation into the documents behind Srour’s conviction. The Israeli Courts Authority has two documents about his “indictment and verdict.”
“I therefore told you that all I know is that regardless of what he went through in his interrogation, Nasser admitted in court (he entered a guilty plea) and was convicted,” an attorney hired by Gurewich told her. “I do not know what the circumstances were, as I have no documents but the ones I sent you.”
Gurewich wrote that “Palestinians and Israelis were not treated as equals in the courts already in the 1990s.”
“Literature often reveals truths and insights that debunk what we read in the news,” the publisher wrote. “I hope that Covit, who seems to admire non-Palestinian prison literature, might give Abu Srour’s book a chance,” she said, referencing the student’s comments about some writings of inmates having value.
MORE: Brown University celebrates a cop killer
IMAGE: Other Press
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