Finkelstein forced to cancel speaking engagment in Germany

[Comment: This is most discouraging about the state of the western /european"left". While the Right wing supports "Israel" and its crimes out of mutual self interests, the "left" in the west supports "Israel" out of conviction and white man's guilt and his tireless efforts not to be called a Nazi and to appear "liberal". You can argue that the Palestinian problem is the only post world war II crime that the entire west-especially the "left"- is in agreement on. It goes beyond the strength of the Zionist lobby, it is in essence the agreement in the west that "Israel" is nothing more than an imperialist extension of them , and supporting it is supporting their own colonial/imperialist/capitalist agendas in the middle east. This is the western "left" they care more about the plight of dolphins than suffering of Palestinians.]

Dr. Norman Finkelstein has cancelled his planned flight to Germany. He wanted to speak in Munich, Milbertshofen and Berlin on February 24, 25 and 26.

The scheduled title of his talk was: “One Year after the Israeli Assault on Gaza. The German Government’s Responsibility in the Ongoing Starvation of the Palestinian Population.”

This title does not beat around the bush. It violates the terminology accepted by official German politics. It violates the terminology accepted by the mainstream German media. And it tells the truth.

It is this truth that the German lobby for Israeli hit-and-smash nationalism is very much afraid of. Therefore a campaign was cranked up: Finkelstein, a man proud of the Jewish traditions bequeathed him by his parents, was defamed as an “anti-Semite” and “revisionist historian”, and thus made out to be in league with the Nazis. The Jewish Community of Berlin, look-alike Jewish groups in the party “The Left” (committees by the name of “Shalom”) and a Jewish committee in the German Social-Democratic Party (SPD) called for a demonstration against Finkelstein.

The Protestant Church did not want to poison its relations with these groups for no good reason. The same held for the Heinrich Böll Foundation associated with the Green Party, and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation associated with “The Left”, also. All of those withdrew their support for organizing Finkelstein’s talk. It was not enough that Finkelstein himself is a Jew, or that we – the “Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East” – were co-organizers.