Norman Finkelstein

Norman Finkelstein        (academic, author)
Born	Norman Gary Finkelstein 8 December 1953
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	State University of New York, Princeton University
Religion	Jewish
Parents	• Maryla (née Husyt) • Zacharias Finkelstein
Member of	The Unz Review
Victim of	Jewish Power

Norman Finkelstein, an American Jewish scholar, is one of the world’s leading experts on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the political legacy of the Nazi holocaust in which, apart from his parents, every member of Finkelstein’s family, on both sides, was exterminated.

Finkelstein's 2000 book "The Holocaust Industry", which was serialised in The Guardian, became an international best-seller and touched off a firestorm of debate. His subsequent book, "Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History" argued that Israel uses perceived anti-Semitism as a weapon to stifle criticism.

Finkelstein's latest book, published in January 2018 and called “Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom” is, according to the Middle East Monitor, "a stark reminder of the facets which have incarcerated Gaza to an extent that its political voice has been rendered irrelevant by the international community. The unravelling of misrepresentation and collaboration to ensure Israel's impunity at an international level are brought together as referenced, detailed facts. Finkelstein's demolition of colonial and international propaganda vindicates his objective 'to refute that Big Lie by exposing each of the little lies'."

Genocide in Gaza

Genocide case: strengths and weaknesses

South Africa filed a complaint on 29 December 2023 against Israel for “genocide” in Gaza with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN tribunal responsible for settling disputes between States.

A public hearing was held on 11 and 12 January 2024 in The Hague to examine the “provisional measures” requested by South Africa.

The South African complaint was accompanied by a request for emergency measures that may order an end to hostilities, motivated by the Hamas attack of the 7 October 2023 that killed 1,200 people and injured 5,000 in Israel. Pretoria called on the ICJ to order Israel to cease all military activities in Gaza, to stop killing and causing serious mental and physical harm to the Palestinian people in Gaza, to stop deliberately imposing living conditions intended to bring about their physical destruction as a group, and to allow access to humanitarian aid.

On 11 January 2024, Norman Finkelstein was interviewed on Breaking Points about the ongoing ICJ case of genocide brought by South Africa against Israel, and detailed its strengths and weaknesses.

Feud with Alan Dershowitz

In September 2007, after a highly publicised feud between Finkelstein and an academic opponent, Alan Dershowitz, Finkelstein resigned his professorship at DePaul University, Chicago. In his resignation statement, Finkelstein said that he believes the tenure decision was "tainted" by external pressures, but praised the university's "honourable role of providing a scholarly haven for me the past six years."

DePaul denied that outside parties influenced the decision to deny Finkelstein tenure. The school's portion of the statement called Finkelstein "a prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher." Finkelstein called that acknowledgment the most important part of the statement:

"I felt finally I had gotten what was my due and that maybe it was time, for everybody's sake, that I move on," he said at a news conference that followed a morning rally staged by students and faculty who carried signs and chanted "stop the witch hunt." Finkelstein said "DePaul students rose to dazzling spiritual heights in my defence that should be the envy of and an example for every university in the United States."

Finkelstein would not discuss financial terms of the resignation agreement, which he said was confidential, but noted that it does not bar him from speaking out about issues that concern him, including "the unfairness of the tenure process."

Dershowitz said:

"I'm happy he's out of academia. Let him do his ranting on street corners."

Banned from Israel

In May 2008, Finkelstein was deported and banned from entering Israel for 10 years. The Israeli security service Shin Bet interrogated him for around 24 hours about his contact with the Lebanese Islamic militia, Hezbollah, when he travelled to Lebanon earlier in the year and expressed solidarity with the group which waged war against Israel in 2006. He was also accused of having contact with al-Qaeda. But Finkelstein rejected the accusations, saying he had travelled to Israel to visit an old friend:

"I did my best to provide absolutely candid and comprehensive answers to all the questions put to me," he told an Israeli newspaper in an email exchange.

"I am confident that I have nothing to hide. Apart from my political views, and the supporting scholarship, there isn't much more to say for myself: alas, no suicide missions or secret rendezvous with terrorist organisations. I've always supported a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. I'm not an enemy of Israel."

 

Documents by Norman Finkelstein

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:The American Jewish scholar behind Labour's "antisemitism" scandal breaks his silence	Interview	3 May 2016	"Antisemitism" "The Holocaust" Tony Blair Jonathan Freedland Jeremy Corbyn Sadiq Khan Bernie Sanders Ken Livingstone Jill Stein Naz Shah John Mann Hajo Meyer BDS	Norman G. Finkelstein is clear: "It’s time to put a stop to this periodic charade, because it ends up besmirching the victims of the Nazi holocaust, diverting from the real suffering of the Palestinian people, and poisoning relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities. You just had an antisemitism hysteria last year, and it was a farce. And now again? Another inquiry? Another investigation? No."
File:The Holocaust Industry.pdf	book	20 July 2000	"The Holocaust"	Devastating criticism of the way in which Jewish organisations use their Official Narrative of "The Holocaust" to extort money from the alleged perpetrators and of those who weren't sufficiently focused on that extortion

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:The Antisemitism Industry doesn’t speak for Jews. It speaks for Western elites	blog post	14 March 2024	Jonathan Cook	Film-maker Jonathan Glazer’s crime at the Oscars was to threaten the establishment’s stranglehold on the West’s Official Narrative about Israel – and itself

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.