Professor Alan Dershowitz
Professor Alan DershowitzGideon Markowicz/Flash90

World famous legal scholar and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz announced that he would not leave the Democratic party following Keith Ellison's defeat in the election for Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman, the Algemeiner reported.

Dershowitz had earlier announced that he would leave the party if Ellison, a former member of the Nation of Islam movement who stated at a fundraiser in 2010 that US foreign was "governed" by Israeli interests and who voted against providing funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, was elected the DNC chairman.

While Ellison was narrowly defeated by former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Perez immediately announced that he was appointing Ellison his deputy.

Ellison's appointment was not enough to prompt Dershowitz to leave the Democratic party. Instead he pledged to "“remain and fight hard for it to move toward the center and away from the anti-Israel and far-Left trends” which have seeped into the Democratic party.

Dershowitz expressed his dissatisfaction with Perez's appointment of Ellison. “I wish Perez had not appointed Ellison as his deputy. I consider Ellison to be disqualified, due to his association with Nation of Islam leader the Reverend Louis Farakhan; his denial that Farakhan is an antisemite; and because he opposed providing the Iron Dome missile defense system to Israel.”

However, he said that Ellison's defeat made him hopeful that the extremist element in the Democratic party could be defeated as well.