Justus Reid Weiner (1950–2020) was a human rights lawyer and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Weiner also lectured widely in various countries, and was a visiting assistant professor at Boston University School of Law.
Weiner also served as a senior attorney at the Israel Ministry of Justice, specializing in human rights and other facets of public international law.
[2] As a scholar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs,[3] Weiner wrote about legal and religious issues and human rights, particularly in Palestinian society.
[4][5][6][7] Weiner was also the principal author of the monograph Referral to Iranian President Ahmadinejad on the Charge of Incitement to Commit Genocide, with Elie Wiesel, Dore Gold and others.
"Justus proved that in pursuit of the truth he was prepared to defy the conventional wisdom," Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations wrote.
[17] Weiner also challenged Said's claim that his family fled in response to the use, by Zionist extremists, of truck with a public address system ordering Arabs in Talbieh to leave.
Weiner claimed that the sound truck incident occurred after a Jew was shot in the area, but cited local press reports and official dispatches from the British High Commissioner's office to establish that the incident occurred on February 11, 1948, whereas Edward Said claimed his family left in December 1947.
Weiner replied, "The issue here is credibility, a man with an international reputation who made himself into a poster boy for Palestine.
"[2] In Jewish World Review, Jonathan Tobin offers support for Weiner's claims: "Rather than growing up as a victim in war-torn Palestine, Said lived a privileged life as the son of a prominent businessman in Cairo with an American passport (!).
"[19] In The Guardian, Julian Borger wrote "The Said family, including the 12-year-old Edward, left Jerusalem in 1947 when it became too dangerous to remain in the crossfire between Arabs and Jews over the city's future.