At a forum held at Harvard Law School Wednesday night, professors speaking in favor of divestment from Israel met largely pro-Israel opposition. The forum was organized by the student group Justice for Palestine, and featured five professors who are leading a petition-signing campaign encouraging MIT and Harvard to discontinue investments in Israeli corporations. Similar campaigns have been launched at dozens of institutions nationwide, including Tufts, the University of California-Berkeley and Princeton. The petition decries what it calls "human rights abuses against Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government" and criticizes Israeli military activities and presence in Gaza and the West Bank. Those favoring divestment hope that pressure will be placed on Israel much as Brandeis and other universities pressured South Africa to end apartheid in the 1980s.

"As members of the MIT and Harvard University communities, we believe that our universities ought to use their influence -- political and financial -- to encourage the United States government and the government of Israel to respect the human rights of the Palestinians," the petition reads.

"I said that I support divestment from the perspective of an American citizen because it goes with the concept of fair play and impartiality," Harvard Psychology Professor Ken Nakayama, who spoke at the forum, said. "We should have good relationships with all countries in the world. That should be codified in the adherence to international law and U.N. resolutions."

Harvard President Lawrence Summers, however, has condemned the petition since its inception this spring. In May, Summers called divestment from Israel "anti-Semitic in effect, if not intent."

Rafi Feingold '02 was among several pro-Israel Brandeis students who assembled at Harvard Hillel before the forum and carried Israeli flags to the event.

"I don't (believe) the signers of the petition have their facts straight, because often the comparison is made to the last big attempt of divestment,which was successful,against South African apartheid," Feingold said. "What is important is that the distinction be made between South African apartheid and what's occurring in Israel today."

"In apartheid South Africa, you had a very small, colonialistic white minority controlling a (majority) black population - a population which was forbidden to go certain places, to hold certain jobs. . Anyone who has been to Israel knows that there are thousands of Muslim and Arab university students in Israeli universities and Israeli Arabs are accorded full rights and are permitted to travel and patronize any establishment they want," Feingold said.

Nakayama told the Justice that 130 to 150 faculty at Harvard and MIT have signed the divestment petition so far.

"Palestinians have been confined to 10 to 15 percent of the area, since the 1967 war. They are confined in tiny areas and being controlled by tanks and helicopters. They are divided territories under military rule, getting smaller and smaller," Nakayama said.

"We are not calling for the destruction of Israel at all. We have to be realistic and concerned with Israel's security and viability," Nakayama added.

Organizers of the forum also faced criticism for its format, which allowed the five professors to speak for about an hour followed by a question and answer session. Initially, audience members posed five questions and panelists responded to those five at once, causing some audience members to question whether their intent was to dodge uncomfortable or objectionable questions.

"I think it was a pre-planned fast one," Feingold said, adding that organizers changed the question-and-answer format later to address each question individually.

-- Jamie Freed contributed to this article.