I am not a fan of famous professors. They are normally so caught up in their research that they’re often socially starved animals; aloof and arrogant in their approach. I’d rather read their work than meet them. Some have been in the library so long they’re unaware of the hairs growing on their nose. When I accepted a chance to interview Professor Norman Finkelstein, one of the most eminent intellectuals working on the Israel-Palestine conflict, I wondered if he’d ask me to shine his shoes.
But I was pleasantly surprised.
Professor Finkelstein was cool, humble and down to earth. He even laughed at my jokes. I quickly realised that Finkelstein really didn’t have any (h)airs about him.
“I want to see the real South Africa,” he tells me. “How often do you go to the township?”
He quizzes me instead. He wants to know everything. About changes since the dawn of South Africa’s democracy; if the poor and common man have reaped any economic benefits from the political changes; about crime, corruption, and community development. Here is a man uninterested in plastic, paper revolutions or tacit power shifts. He is interested in addressing real problems, through real solutions.
Even amidst exhaustion after spending most of his time delivering lectures around the country, he was not here to muck about. He wanted to learn, make comparisons, debate solutions, and understand the dynamics.
It was no surprise that his no frills approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict has resulted in widely acclaimed books, including Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history.
But it has come at a huge cost.
Professor Finkelstein’s principled stance alienates him from mainstream US intellectual community, leaving him with few friends in the civilised world.
“People get it wrong. I am definitely not pro-Palestine or anti-Israel. This is not about taking sides. This is a human-rights issue. Are you for truth and justice or are you against it? Israel is in violation of international law, and everyone agrees on this, including The United Nations, the Arab world and the international community in general. Resolving this conflict is not that complicated,” argues a passionate but measured Finkelstein.
Finkelstein’s family was traumatised by the Holocaust. His grandparents perished in the concentration camps and both his parents were survivors of Nazi brutality. As a consequence, his ideas of justice and equity were endemically shaped in his formative years by his mother, values that have become the backbone of his scholarly life.
Let’s just say Finkelstein knows the value of speaking up against injustice.
It was during his PhD thesis on “Zionism” in which he sought to debunk some of the popular ideas that gave unfair leverage to Israel and Zionism that first got him into trouble. His attention to detail, found him searching deep into the demographic history of Palestine and the region, arguing that pro-Zionism theories of a scarcely populated land called Palestine which Zionists claimed as their own is a “monumental hoax”.
Finkelstein pushed on and after being rather disappointed by the manner in which the Holocaust was prostituted into an ideological weapon, he began investigating how the Holocaust was being exploited by Israel using the “victim state” mentality to gather a type immunity from criticism.
Needless to say, the American Jewry aren’t his biggest fans. And it is widely known that he is treated like an academic leper for attacking the accepted academic rhetoric.
When he is done milking me for information about the “rainbow nation”, I cut straight to the chase.
“Are you a practising Jew?” I ask him.
I suggest, rather out of turn, that it is because he isn’t an observant Jew that the Jewish community battle to support his views. I insinuate further that he should go to the synagogue, wear a hat, grow curly hair doubling for sideburns and kiss the Wailing Wall.
My activist friend sitting alongside me shrugs, and steadies to launch an attack, but I shoot her down with Taliban-like fervour, “Same goes for you woman, you should put on a scarf if you want the Muslim community to take your activism seriously!”
She groans.
Finkelstein smirks at my cheekiness and calmly disagrees, “The facts don’t change, no matter how we dress ourselves”.
He adds, “Look, I think people should remain who they are, and if they are honest to their cause, I believe people will see the truth eventually”.
It is obvious that Finkelstein is an eloquent man. But beneath the calm exterior lies a resolute thinker.
He even dug up Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of passive resistance and sense of social justice in searching for new spaces and strategies for peace.
Gandhi might have perished in 1948, but Finkelstein says there are a number of lessons that may be learned from Gandhi’s approach to life, his method of conflict-resolution and ending an illegal occupation.
“Sure, Britain was bankrupt after WWII and it is difficult to establish just how much of a role Gandhi played in getting Britain out of India, but his philosophy of justice is exactly what we ought to be striving for,” says Finkelstein.
But surely he doesn’t expect Hamas to trade suicide bombers for salt marches?
“I don’t think Gandhi’s philosophy could work everywhere, but a civil disobedience campaign could work in Palestine. It is in the international eye unlike for example south Lebanon, where Israel could bomb to its heart’s delight and no one would care”.
“The idea is if we could organise a mass campaign act of civil disobedience, you will, as Gandhi puts it, quicken the conscience of the international community to finally act at what it knows is wrong,” says a methodical Finkelstein.
Professor Finkelstein tells me that everyone knows the current blockade of Gaza, one that started since June 2007, is illegal and in violation of international law. The Israelis might have removed their arsenal from the area, but the borders to the outside world remain closed.
A massive non-violent march is planned for January 1 2010, in a bid to end the blockade of Gaza. Thousands from all over the world are expected to descend on the region and walk across the mile-long corridor that separates Gaza from the rest of the world in an attempt to pressure a reopening of the borders.
“This will not be illegal. We are trying to enforce the law. And the law says that the siege of Gaza is illegal.”
“Israel is totally in the wrong, and so the issue is rather uncomplicated. But it is not simple to resolve because at the level of implementation it is very tough. This is not a case of the issues being complicated; instead it is tough because Israel has US muscle behind it.”
Gaza is but one aspect of the ongoing conflict, and I wonder what is destined for the region in the near future. Any predictions, I ask.
“I can’t make predictions, but I can tell you one thing. If we do nothing, it will get worse.”
“Remember, visit http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/,” he says with a smile.
Ps. Professor Finkelstein has since withdrawn from the Gaza Freedom March, but continues to support participation.
Finkelstein at Gandhi’s house in KwaZulu-Natal (Click to enlarge)
Great post, but why the comma in the title?
You mention Finklesteins recent visit. I guess that would be the one where one of the questions posed to him was “Do the Jews ruled the world?” Finklesteins audiences are notoriously anti-Semitic, one state solutions and from what I experienced generally vengeful. Finklestien himself is dogmatic and bitter.
Finklestein is a pseudo academic who’s works have been found to be absolutely full of half truths and sheer lies. Most scholars dismiss Finkelstein’s work because of its questionable scholarship and scathing polemics.
have you heard of Oslo Syndrome…finklestien is a prime case
All this because Israle missed the origional point. So God speaks to abrahm and says, i’m going to bless you, so that you can bless the whole world. but centuaries later israle is still living in the lecacy of not having been a blessing, to other of enslaving other people, of being held captive, because of it, and then just going back again to the same old problem over and over and over again. man these people are stuborn. of cores this is the continuing madate of the now christian comunity and they aren’t exactly doing much about it either.which is annother point up for discussion. so really the issue is people are selfish.
Nice piece of hagiography, Azad. Finkelstein has a reputation as a crank and a loony even amongst even respected *critics* of Israel.
And he seems a hypocrite as well — your last little “P.S” remains interestingly unexplained.
It’s typical of rhetoricians like Finkelstein to paint only one side of the picture – a ruthless Israel hell-bent on destroying the Palestinians in Gaza. What he fails to mention is that Gaza and the West Bank were occupied by Israel only as a result of aggressive wars *against* it. The refugee situation has in fact been created by the Arabs, who refused to let their Palestinian brothers and sisters settle in countries like Jordan, Egypt and Libya. You also forget that Jews in most Arab countries in the Middle East have their human rights curtailed — something which is not true of Arabs living in Israel. So yes, supporters of Israel do object to idiots like Finkelstein, who flame the fuels rather than find ways to bring peace. Israel is not the only party involved — please remember that – her citizens are constantly under fire from Arab terrorists in Hamas and Hezbollah.
I was going to say that the title of this piece illustrates the importance of attention to correct punctuation, but Kevin beat me to it.
“But surely he doesn’t expect Hamas to trade suicide bombers for salt marches?”
At what point does one expect Hamas to stop purposely targeting innocents? Since the blockade of Gaza, and the wall in the West Bank there has been almost no suicide bombing. Before there was one almost every other week.
Yet no one thinks that if the violence stops things might change? It is like a weird kind of blindness.
Sounds like a very observant Jew to me, if not an observing one.
in the ghettos of nazi occupied europe persons like finkelstein thought by working with the nazis,they would turn things around.it did not happen.by working with the muslim dominated un people think like those in the past that this will solve the issue. i want my children * grandchildren to remain of the jewish faith. giving in to nazism,muslim terrorists & the ilk ,will only destroy judaism.the nazis nearly succeded.the un & world antisemites must not be in a position to destroy JUDAISM & ISRAEL
While I applaud this blog for such fine piece of journalism, I remain unconvinced that non-violence will deliver results in the Palestine-Israeli conflict. On the other hand violence is a dead-ended and will achieve nothing but first the question of non-violence.
Now no reasonable individual would want or desire a violent struggle (certainly not a violent struggle in the Middle East) but non-violence only works when the act of non-compliance in a system prevents the functioning of that system. In India, the ability of the Great Mahatma to mobilize large numbers of non-violent protestors against the British Rajah achieved results because the British Empire in India could only function with the compliance of the Indian population. Without the compliance of Indian bureaucrats, factory-workers, railway workers and farmers the Rajah became untenable.
Now we must ask the question: without the Palestinians can the Israeli state function? The answer: Yes. In fact you could make the argument that the fewer Palestinians that exist the better the Israeli will be able function. Indeed, you could even argue that the ideal scenario for Israel is a Middle East in which the Palestinians do not exist.
But for the Palestinians violence will not deliver results: not for purely moral reasons but for the far more earthly conclusion that Palestinians mired in poverty and starved of resources can never hope to achieve military victory against the near-invincible Israeli army.
In short it is sucks to be a Palestianian…
A friend of mine has just raised the argument that perhaps non-violence could pressurize the Israeli into making real concessions to the Palestinians. Never, in my mind, could this happen. Aside from what could be termed ‘the consciousness objectors’, Jews in general are unconditionally loyal to the Israeli state. And the key aspect of UNCONDITIONAL loyalty is that it will continue regardless of Israeli state’s or the Israeli military’s actual conduct. Regardless of opinion, creed or religion those who oppose the Israeli state or her policies will always be anti-Semantic.
Azad you write: “A massive non-violent march is planned for January 1 2009, in a bid to end the blockade of Gaza.” well my cellphone tells me – today we have the 22.10.09 – did the march already happen or will it happen on January 1 2010?
And then one question: Did Finkelstein compare Israel to Apartheid South Africa? And if he did, do you think this is a valid or fruitful comparison?
eh sorry these are two questions…
Some of the comments here seem premised on the fallacy that repeating a lie makes it truth, specifically regarding the slanderous accusation that Finkelstein — note the correct spelling please — is an anti-Semite. This is coupled with the vulgar, idiotic, unfounded, and sweeping assertion that his audiences are also anti-Semitic. Finkelstein grows in statute when his critics reveal themselves to be such puerile trash-talking bigots. Again, if you are going to pretend to know anything about the man, don’t misspell his name repeatedly. No serious academic questions Finkelstein’s credentials as a scholar. The comments here show how defenders of Israeli atrocities have hit rock bottom and are not only utterly desperate, their statements are entirely vacuous, hate-filled propaganda that trivialize real anti-Semitism. In fact, they show extreme disrespect for the concept of anti-Semitism, probably masking their own deep seated hatred for the majority of Jews, outside of the extremist fanatics in power in Israel today.
I decided to have an open mind and listen to the Prof. on radio. I fell asleep after 2 minutes. He has to be THE most boring man I have ever had the (dis)pleasure of listening to.
Great post Azad
Max Forte makes a good point.
The comments by the Pro-Israeli’s on this post only try to move attention away from the actual atrocities in Palestine by crying “Anti-Semitism” and “Finkelstein is a fool”.
The point is that they refuse to see the truth, that their own people are killing without remorse.
How come the anti Israel group (yeah that’s you) speak of attrocities in Palestine, and never mention attrocities in Israel? How come they focus on the fauxtography (Operation Cast Lead) and not the photography (Sderot, S Israel) and the victims of terror?
How come?
Hmm?
“No serious academic questions Finkelstein’s credentials as a scholar” Ask the universities that have refused to employ him based on his distinct lack of academic ability. A statement such as the one above made by Max Forte, which has absolutely no relation to reality is claimed as fact. This claim of fact when the so called fact is in fact a verifiable lie is a constant theme of Finkelstein work.
“repeating a lie makes it truth” this is exactly what FinkLEstein and various other propagandist would like to achieve. The truth is I think that some suffering such extreme Oslo Syndrome such as Finkelstein(or closer to home Steven Friedman,) actually truly believe the rubbish they make up.
Thanks for the article. Finkelstein is a brave academic and his work should be read by all.
He destroyed the bias, innacurate books by Harvard law professor Alan Dersowitz through accurate elegant argument. The only weapon those who oppose his views can use are ad hominems – trying to get people to think he’s a crank. Such is the power of misinformation.
What Isreal is doing in Palestine is not only illegal but outrageous, unjustified and will be remembered.
More articles like these please.
No less than Noam Chomsky, Jewish MIT professor of Linguistics and most cited scholar in the world supports the work that Finkelstein has done.
Those that call Finkelstein a crank and an anti-semite betray nothing more than their own stupidity and weakness in the face of honest and good scholarship.
A well-timed piece thanks Azad. Question to posters like “jack schnaier” and jp: So is Richard Goldstone also a self-hating Jew? Because by all accounts (besides the US and Israel) the report was rigorous and remarkably balanced. I don’t really know Finkelstein’s writings but the Goldstone report apparently bears out a lot of what Finkelstein says in the interview. Honestly, people who won’t admit that Israel’s violent occupation is at the root of the problem remind me a bit of flat earthers- big in the middle ages but now…
The problem with those that support the atrocities by Israel forget one thing, if you want peace you cannot destroy Palestine people. The suicide bombings are actually caused by Israel’s policies against helpless people. Like in Apartheid SA most young people see no future and therefore will be willing to die rather than live in those circumstances. The victim mentality should not be condoned by anybody, cause it only makes people impervious to the truth. We should not use words lightly cause every time you criticise the behaviour of a country with nuclear weapons and one of the heaviest armed armies you are told how much of a lunatic you are. Why can’t we tackle the issues and not the writer?
(A) I am not a fan of Noam Chomsky.
(B)people who label critics of Finklestein show their inability to respect others’ opinions, so frankly dear, you are not someone I would choose to spend time with illustrating the lacklustre Finklestein’s tainted arguments.
Throughout history, one interesting fact is observable: those who were previously ruthlessly oppressed, once freed become the greatest and most ruthless oppressors.
This is the same Finkelstein who called the Soviet Army a liberating force in Europe and moralized the Stalinist regime as merely “not a bed of roses”.
I think I’ll pass on his opinion of “human rights”…
Chomsky’s a great linguist, but an abysmal political theorist. His approval of one’s politics is to bestown on one the mark of Cain.
There are many citizens of Israel who disagree with their governments’ policies on Palestine. But especially the international media ignore them and do not give them voice.
I think a civil disobedience campaign should grow and get more attention in Israel rather than in Palestine.
Ta! We need more Muslims who’re as rhetoric and neutral as Finkelstein
“Throughout history, one interesting fact is observable: those who were previously ruthlessly oppressed, once freed become the greatest and most ruthless oppressors. ”
I found this extraordinary, within the thread of this commentary. Extraordiary because the writer is speaking of Israel obviously, and he writes this clearly insinuating that Israel has become the wearer of the jackboot, instead of being the recpient of the jackboot.
I respectfully ask him what he feels Israel should have done, following such military attacks like the ones she has had recently (Lebanon and the Cast Lead)?
Which other country sends messages to civilians to evacuate a FAMILY OCCUPIED APARTMENT BLOCK where terrorists fire rockets from.
Which other country resists returning fire after 8 years of rocket attacks and when it does – sends cell phone messages warning the innocents to leave?
What other country sits back and smiles when it hands back an occupied territory in peace, and then watches that territory desecrate its synagogues and burn its greenhouses?
Ruthless?
Hard Rain, I also listened to that interview and either you are incapable of understanding common expressions or you are so biased that you base your feeble argument on your own out-of-context quotation. Finkelstein compared Hizbollah to the Soviet forces during WW2 and said that while “THE STALINIST REGIME WAS NOT EXACTLY A BED OF ROSES…” their efforts to stop Nazism were lauded and supported in the Western world at that time. He never moralized the Stalinist regime as merely “not a bed of roses”. Have you no shame?
I once had this afrikaans lecturer at dental school
who detested chinese people (asians).
Although teaching ethics and jurisprudence he always had a bone to pick.Nothing chinese people
did was right even the same air they breathed.
Despite also been educated or less educated he
practised what he was taught by his peers and parents on how to “deal” with chinese people.
He even to this day sits on the HPCSA doing
hearings and quite a religious fanatic and love
his whisky in opffice hours too.
In South Africa there is still much work to be
done to remove these individuals(there are many in Pretoria and in the legal professions) from the
society we want our children to grow up in the
new South Africa.
Johan:
Finkelstein is clearly moralizing for the Soviet Union. He is trying to use the analogy to explain why he supports Hezbollah.
He claims the Soviet Union was a force of liberation in Europe and, therefore, all the bad stuff about the regime is acceptable. That is moralizing.
Well Finkelstein is a controversial personality – so controversial that in my political 100% correct country nobody wants to talk to him.
South Africa in this respect, is further than Germany.
The Israel lobby in Germany pisses in its pants when they hear his name – and the comparison between Israel and South Africa is generally described as anti-Semitic because it is believed to be a delegitimization of Israel.
So Azad what do you think???
Its lamentable that Jews who question and criticise their brethren or Israel with good cause and basis are ostracised, labelled, discredited and their loyalty questioned and Gentiles who do the same are just labelled anti-semitic without any meaningfull engagement. Assuming we agree that loyalty should be conditional, South African Jewry, perhaps like members of the ANC, are pitifully no different. Zapiro once mentioned that his Jewish compatriots said “we don’t need Hamas to cause us trouble, we have you”. The resentment of other well-known South African Jews who question and criticise Israel such as Ronnie Kasrils and now Richard Goldstone bears testimony to this malaise.
Just a few weeks ago Israeli students, who refused to serve in the Israeli Defence Force on grounds that it constituted an occupying force engaged in illegal activities, hoping to raise awareness of their plight were denied access to Jewish schools in South Africa.
Forced consensus and gagged dissent will further the victims of yesteryear being the aggressors of today.
Here’s to courageous and active engagement.
Ps: Arabs are semites too!
Hello All, thanks for reading.
never thought the revolution was so fragile, it hung by a comma.
Thanks Peppi for pointing out 2010
could hire you as a sub-editor.
Amira Hass – Israeli journalist from the Haaretz said the other day on Al-Jazeera that the situation is complex because it a combination of Apartheid, colonization, and democracy for only one group of people.
She said that there are different sets of laws for Jews and Palestinians and it has elements of Apartheid especially because of these differential laws as well as the idea of self-rule (like Bantustans)
She said its not racism. If you go to a hospital in Israel, there aren’t separations like SA Apartheid. She put it down to being an issue of “interests”.
“The Israelis profit from this situation”
She said Israel is a society built on the security industry– there is a whole structure that gains from the tension – and the the hatred is simply utilized to justify the system/structure.
I think this is a strong, mostly ignored facet of the conflict. Who gains from all this?
Amira is an Israeli working for the Haaretz, and she has lived in Ramallah, doing much of her reporting from there.
Of course you can say she has Stockholm syndrome (not Oslo). Alternatively, you can say she is staring reality in the face every day. You decide.
Amira recently won the International Women’s Media Foundation lifetime achievement award.
Telling that those making snide remarks about Finkelstein have Jewish names.
Very hard to take criticism, especially from one of your own.
Finkelstein is an important scholar. He has honesty and integrity and has exposed some of the underhand shenanigans of ‘the lobby’ to public scrutiny. About time too. It affects all of us at some level.
A non-Jew simply could not take this stand and hope to keep his head. It is important that he is Jewish.
The comma is important too…
Ned! Long time long see
sorry Peppi, I didnt see your second comment until now when I was looking for something else on this blog…what do you mean what I think…about Germany & Finkelstein & anti-semitism….? I do not follow…