Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Norman Finkelstein, formerly of DePaul University, is coming to Boston College tomorrow. Here's the announcement:
Dr. Norman Finkelstein on "Israel/Palestine: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace"
When? Wednesday, April 16, 2008 | 4:30 p.m
Where? Gasson Hall, Room 305
Description: Dr. Norman Finkelstein is one of the foremost scholars on Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the son of Holocaust survivors. He is the author of Beyond Chutzpah, The Rise and Fall of Palestine: A personal account of the intifada years, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering and various other works. He received his PhD from Princeton University for his dissertation on Zionism. He was most recently an assistant professor at De Paul University, but was placed on academic leave due to a high profile dispute with Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz.
This event is sponsored by the Arab Students Association, Muslim Students Association, Sociology Department, Fine Arts Department, Global Justice Project, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Students Association and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Minor
There are any number of interesting aspects to this invitation. First, the title of the talk: "Israel/Palestine: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace". Well, we all know Finkelstein's path to peace, war against and ultimately the destruction of Israel. Here is video of him basically begging the Lebanese to sacrifice their lives in his hoped for battle, and here is a description of him at the Oxford Union voting against the motion that Israel Has a Right to Exist.
Then on to the description. The irony is ever-striking that virtually every time that this guy is introduced, one of the first things he's introduced as is "the son of Holocaust survivors" -- this man who has been ceaselessly vicious toward actual Holocaust survivors...built a career on it in fact.
Secondly, he was not placed on anything "due to a high profile dispute" with Alan Dershowitz. He was denied tenure because he's an academic hack and a loon. That's why he's gone (for good). But worry not, despite claims of persecution, the speaking engagements (like this one) and book sales keep pouring in. It's lucrative being a self-hating American Jew.
Finkelstein doesn't get these invitations because he's a respected or accomplished academic (he isn't one), he's brought in (bought in) as a high-caliber hired gun in the War against the Jews. Period. And look at the line up of groups that are sponsoring the event. Let's print it again:
This event is sponsored by the Arab Students Association, Muslim Students Association, Sociology Department, Fine Arts Department, Global Justice Project, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Students Association and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Minor
Always the Arab and Muslim groups bringing this guy in. Always. What's their purpose do you suppose? And on what basis do academic departments invite a light-weight like this in? You mean there are no serious academics with more than a handful of extremist polemical works to their credit that could come in to enhance the academic environment? Of course there are, but instead they're having Finkelstein in, and he doesn't receive invitations on the basis of his intellectual acumen and scholarly contributions let's face it. So what is the basis for their hosting him do you suppose?
Always the Arab and Muslim groups bringing this guy in. Always. What's their purpose do you suppose?
What I found particularly depressing was seeing that him listed as the centerpiece of Palestinian Week or something like that at MIT recently. You'd think that of the people out there capable of helping to create a functional Palestinian state, the MIT Palestinian contingent would be near the top of the list.
But, no. Basically they couldn't care less about anything like that; their only concern is giving a platform to a lowlife like Finkelstein.
"Norman Finkelstein is one of the foremost scholars on Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the son of Holocaust survivors."
It is a strange combination of credentials and an unpleasant insight into how the minds of the people who invite him work.
I wonder he is not insulted by such an introduction. That his "scholarly" usefulness is defined by his parents' history. We don't see this absurdity anywhere else but in this context.
Imagine other examples where one's academic "expertise" is so strongly attached to one's parental experience:
So and So is an expert on semi-conductors and a son of a father who was killed in Pearl Harbour
Such and such is a Shakespeare scholar and the daughter of parents who survived the Blitz.
Pathetic.