The decision to cancel should be blamed on Netanyahu himself, the event's promoter and the Berkeley police, who were angry at not being notified about the protest. We certainly were not responsible for cancellation of Netanyahu's two other lectures in San Mateo and Marin County.

We demonstrators did not intend to, nor expect to, prevent the speech. We did what we have done whenever someone with as shameful a record as Netanyahu has comes to Berkeley: We registered our dissent -- nonviolently.

We hoped to make Netanyahu feel unwelcome. We wanted to tell him that many Americans oppose Israeli policies toward Palestinians. We wanted our voices, which are usually ignored, heard in the mainstream media.

Nobody, not Netanyahu nor those attending the lecture, was ever in danger. We planned to sit down after the protest and expected that the police would move or arrest us. Our opposition would be public; the event would proceed with little trouble. We extended Netanyahu far more freedom of expression than he offered Palestinians just for flying the Palestinian flag while he was prime minister.

Contrary to assertions that we sullied Berkeley's proud tradition of free speech, our demonstration honored that tradition. This was true democracy in action. But Netanyahu recoiled when confronted with peaceful opponents he could not send his army out to bludgeon.

What I find most ridiculous is the amount of outrage mustered to defend the free-speech rights of a man who has almost unlimited access to the international media, while we who oppose him must demonstrate to be heard. Where were their voices of outrage when Israeli soldiers gunned down unarmed Palestinian children?

I find it curious that these so-called guardians of free speech never before felt the urge to complain about acts of civil disobedience during appearances by former United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, for example,

or Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

I think what is really going on is not an effort to preserve free speech but an attempt to stifle the free speech of anyone who would criticize Israel.

Barbara Lubin is former school board president and executive director of the Middle East Children's Alliance in Berkeley.

©2000 San Francisco Chronicle

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