The Muslim Students Union at the University of California, Irvine put together a very impressive program during the week May 7-14, Commemorating the Nakba. Among the speakers were Norman Finkelstein, Ilan Pappe, Craig and Cindy Corrie and Anna Baltzer. I attended both the Finkelstein and Pappe presentations and both were great. I even had a chance to ask Ilan Pappe a question about the one state/ two state solutions and get his response.
Below is a summary of the Finkelstein presentation. I am told that a video will be available on YouTube soon; I will post it when available.
"“You have the ability to turn things around,” Jewish-American political scientist Norman Finkelstein encouraged a stout crowd of 600 people at UC Irvine on May 7.
“Show some courage, show some backbone, stick to the facts,” Finkelstein implored the crowd, encouraging them to speak out against Israeli atrocities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “We have the facts on our side.”
Sponsored by the Muslim Student Union (MSU) as a part of their eighth-annual Palestine Awareness Week, Finkelstein’s visit was in hopes of answering the question: “What’s the fuss? Is Criticism of Israel Anti-Semitic?”
Finkelstein insisted that Israel and its supporters conveniently label their challengers as anti-Semitic in order to “divert attention from [and] sow confusion about what the actual documentary record shows.”
“Each time Israel commits egregious human rights violations we are told ‘What about the Holocaust?’” contended Finkelstein, who had family members perish in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
Finkelstein condemned terrorism but pointed out that the “indiscriminate use of force” by the Israeli Defense Forces is far deadlier than the worst suicide attacks.
Using the latest statistics from an impartial Israeli human rights organization, Bet’selem, he pointed out that since 2000 one Israeli civilian was killed for every five innocent Palestinians.
He strongly advocated the consultation of statistics from third party human rights organizations, insisting that responsible journalists should be skeptical when receiving information from parties involved in the conflict.
Maintaining a scholarly composure throughout, Finkelstein argued that Israel has fallaciously framed the conflict along racial or religious lines in order to marginalize supporters of peace and justice.
“It’s not an ethnic issue…That’s what they what [Israel] wants to make you believe it is…It’s a human issue,” he explained.
A proud supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, he also asserted that the “new anti-Semitism” is not in fact new, and is merely strategically employed as propaganda for warfare.
“Every time Israel faces an international relations debacle they start up the new anti-Semitism,” he explained.
“The purpose is, number one, to turn to the perpetrator, Israel and its supporters, into the victim, focusing on the alleged suffering of Jews, rather than the very real suffering of Palestinians… And the second purpose is to discredit all criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism,” he alleged.
Finkelstein invited dissenters to question him afterwards, and urged those who doubted his credibility to do their own research.
“You should doubt everything. You should go on your own to check the facts,” he insisted.
Later, Finkelstein answered questions while autographing copies of his acclaimed book Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.
When a student thanked him for support of the MSU, Finkelstein replied, “I support whatever is just, whatever is fair.”"
Below is a summary of the Finkelstein presentation. I am told that a video will be available on YouTube soon; I will post it when available.
"“You have the ability to turn things around,” Jewish-American political scientist Norman Finkelstein encouraged a stout crowd of 600 people at UC Irvine on May 7.
“Show some courage, show some backbone, stick to the facts,” Finkelstein implored the crowd, encouraging them to speak out against Israeli atrocities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “We have the facts on our side.”
Sponsored by the Muslim Student Union (MSU) as a part of their eighth-annual Palestine Awareness Week, Finkelstein’s visit was in hopes of answering the question: “What’s the fuss? Is Criticism of Israel Anti-Semitic?”
Finkelstein insisted that Israel and its supporters conveniently label their challengers as anti-Semitic in order to “divert attention from [and] sow confusion about what the actual documentary record shows.”
“Each time Israel commits egregious human rights violations we are told ‘What about the Holocaust?’” contended Finkelstein, who had family members perish in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
Finkelstein condemned terrorism but pointed out that the “indiscriminate use of force” by the Israeli Defense Forces is far deadlier than the worst suicide attacks.
Using the latest statistics from an impartial Israeli human rights organization, Bet’selem, he pointed out that since 2000 one Israeli civilian was killed for every five innocent Palestinians.
He strongly advocated the consultation of statistics from third party human rights organizations, insisting that responsible journalists should be skeptical when receiving information from parties involved in the conflict.
Maintaining a scholarly composure throughout, Finkelstein argued that Israel has fallaciously framed the conflict along racial or religious lines in order to marginalize supporters of peace and justice.
“It’s not an ethnic issue…That’s what they what [Israel] wants to make you believe it is…It’s a human issue,” he explained.
A proud supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, he also asserted that the “new anti-Semitism” is not in fact new, and is merely strategically employed as propaganda for warfare.
“Every time Israel faces an international relations debacle they start up the new anti-Semitism,” he explained.
“The purpose is, number one, to turn to the perpetrator, Israel and its supporters, into the victim, focusing on the alleged suffering of Jews, rather than the very real suffering of Palestinians… And the second purpose is to discredit all criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism,” he alleged.
Finkelstein invited dissenters to question him afterwards, and urged those who doubted his credibility to do their own research.
“You should doubt everything. You should go on your own to check the facts,” he insisted.
Later, Finkelstein answered questions while autographing copies of his acclaimed book Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.
When a student thanked him for support of the MSU, Finkelstein replied, “I support whatever is just, whatever is fair.”"
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