| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Mandy
Joined: 07 Feb 2007
|
 Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:54 am Post subject: |
 |
|
|
|
| luke wrote: | | finklestein lives in america mandy |
I know. I was just highlighting the link with the Israeli lobby's threats in the UK. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
nekokate
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Location: West Yorkshire, UK
|
| Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:48 am Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
| Quote: | Israel critic denied post at university
The Independent
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Published: 12 June 2007
A top American university has denied tenure to a prominent academic amid allegations of anti-Semitism and his defence of the Palestinian cause.
Norman Finkelstein, a frequent critic of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, said he had been "blacklisted" by the university and would now have to leave teaching. He had been offered lifelong tenure by the political science department of the Catholic DePaul University in Chicago, but faced with a bitter campaign against him, the university denied him the post.
Mr Finkelstein, whose family survived the Holocaust, has been public enemy number one of the Israel lobby in the US for a number of years. He has frequently accused American Jews of exploiting the Holocaust for financial gain and is a regular critic of Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians. He described DePaul's move as an "egregious violation" of academic freedom.
One of his main critics, Alan Dershowitz, an attorney and Harvard law professor, said: "It was plainly the right decision." |
I know this isn't technically new news, but it gives me the chance to rant about Alan Dershowitz. I saw him on Channel 4 news yesterday, talking about the current suggested debate on a university boycot. He was, as usual, being a complete prick. In the space of about a 2 minute reply he managed to change the subject, call the other guest an anti-Semite, gloss over Israel's scholarship issues by saying it was worse in Cuba and China, and wrap it all up by neatly avoiding the question being asked. Oh, and he also said of the members of the Jewish community who were all for the debate "They're irrelevant, they're a very small minority, they're self hating." |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
|
| Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:33 am Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
| nekokate wrote: | | I know this isn't technically new news, but it gives me the chance to rant about Alan Dershowitz. |
neko, neko, neko - you never need an excuse to rant about dershowitz, you are among friends  he's a nasty piece of work, i saw him as well on channel 4 news - it was funny, before he came on i was telling my house mate about the whole finkelstein / dershowitz affair, and then whos nasty evil face pops up - dershowitz! 
he's clever though, the way he changes the argument to anything but what it is - because he knows he can't win the argument, so has to change it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
|
| Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:41 am Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
go on the students 
i won't post anymore but you can check https://www.normanfinkelstein.com for all sorts of updates, and the letter denying him tenure |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sandino
Joined: 05 Jan 2007
|
| Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:26 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
| Beyond chutzpah is a great book,meticulousy researched and impeccable like all his books. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
major.tom
Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Location: BC, Canada
|
| Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
Thanks, Luke. I'll check that out.
I'm heartened to hear that the students are protesting Finkelstein's denial of tenure. It flies in the face of academic freedom (not to mention departmental autonomy). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 8:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
| Quote: | 
Finkelstein deal ends DePaul tiff
The long-running battle between outspoken professor Norman Finkelstein and DePaul University administrators ended Wednesday as the two sides agreed on a private settlement, cutting short a planned day of protests.
But the underlying struggle between supporters of Israel and champions of the Palestinians continues, not just at the North Side campus but across the academic world.
Finkelstein's case attracted far greater public attention than tenure struggles usually do, with supporters across the nation demanding the Catholic university grant him tenure and detractors just as vehemently insisting he be fired. Wednesday's settlement did little to calm those waters.
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, a strong supporter of Israel, has been engaged in a long and bitter public debate with Finkelstein. Dershowitz expressed outrage at the apparent compromise Wednesday, especially a written statement from the university that declared, "Professor Finkelstein is a prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher."
"The university has traded truth for peace," said Dershowitz. "The statement that [Finkelstein] is a scholar is simply false. He's a propagandist."
Finkelstein's cause, meanwhile, has found support among academic powerhouses such as the late Raul Hilberg, the dean of Holocaust historians, and Noam Chomsky, linguist and social critic. Finkelstein is something of a protege of Chomsky, with whom he shares a critical stance toward Israel and American foreign policy.
Chomsky said he had not seen the terms of the settlement, but added in an e-mail: "Of course, the whole affair was an utter outrage, a cowardly attack on academic freedom."
Earlier this year, DePaul Dean Chuck Suchar had rejected tenure for Finkelstein, saying the political scientist, known for his red-hot rhetoric, hadn't been true to the school's "Vincentian values," including respect for the views of others.
But supporters felt Finkelstein was being intellectually martyred for his strong criticisms of Israel.
Opponents, meanwhile, saw Finkelstein, himself Jewish, as peddling a brand of anti-Semitism for which there should be no place on campus.
Finkelstein has rejected charges of anti-Jewish bias in his books, telling an Israeli newspaper: "I am just the messenger who reports on the actions of the Jewish establishment, actions that are encouraging anti-Semitism," he said.
After losing his tenure battle in June, Finkelstein was unexpectedly put on administrative leave shortly before classes started at DePaul on Wednesday.
He vowed in return to commit an act of civil disobedience and stage a hunger strike, which guaranteed a parade of protesters and television trucks on the first day of the new quarter.
Wednesday's demonstration witnessed the way in which the professor's personal and academic struggle has been subsumed into a constellation of larger issues. Though the majority in the pro-Finkelstein ranks were college age, some in the crowd of 120 looked like veterans of many an earlier protest. One carried a placard and a portable oxygen supply.
Members of the International Socialist Organization hawked their newspaper, as did representatives of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Others wore orange headbands, signifying solidarity with prisoners at Abu Ghraib, where U.S. military guards abused Iraqi detainees.
One person Wednesday wore a T-shirt with the words of Albert Spies, an anarchist executed after the 1886 Haymarket Incident in Chicago, who told the court: "Here you tread upon a spark, but there, and there, and behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up."
But instead of a dramatic standoff, Finkelstein stood beside a statue of St. Vincent DePaul, for whom the university is named, and announced that he and the school had come to an amicable agreement: He resigned, and the university acknowledged his scholarship and teaching.
Lina Thorne, 28, wearing a T-shirt that said "Impeach the War Criminals," listened with dismay.
"I'm saddened," she said after Finkelstein announced he was leaving without a fight. She said she had attended the gathering because she saw his tenure denial as an important issue of free speech -- the necessary ingredient for the American public to come to grips with serious shortcomings, as she perceives them, of American military and foreign policy.
As Finkelstein spoke, a cry rang out from the audience: "Viva Palestine!"
Recently, both supporters of the Palestinians and those of the Israelis have exchanged cries of "foul" during bitter campus debates. Jewish college students have complained of being harassed, in and out of the classroom. After an incident at the University of Chicago, that school brought in counselors, hoping to restore civility to the dorms.
Scholars of Middle Eastern studies have complained that Jewish organizations were out to censor them. University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and his Harvard University partner Stephen Walt, co-authors of a new book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," had a speaking engagement withdrawn by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
But Finkelstein himself was soft-spoken in what had been billed as his final class session. His remarks were more reminiscent of the famed school-days novel "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" than of soap-box rabble-rousing. He had praise for DePaul University and quoted lyrics of Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson, balladeers of the liberal left.
His voice cracked with emotion when he thanked his students for their support through some dark periods.
"My spirits have been lifted when I walked into a classroom," he said. "You have put a high burden on my shoulders." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
faceless
admin
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
|
| Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:57 am Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
| I'm sure he'll do ok from now on - who needs acceptance from 'normal' society anyway? fuck em. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mandy
Joined: 07 Feb 2007
|
| Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 12:33 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
| with his reputation on the left enhanced, he could move into a media career ... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
nekokate
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Location: West Yorkshire, UK
|
| Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:54 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
| Mandy wrote: | | with his reputation on the left enhanced, he could move into a media career ... |
That would be quite interesting! I'd love to see him hosting a phone-in on Air America or maybe getting a regular slot on MSNBC. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
| Quote: | Intellectual terrorism
For the sake of free speech, British organisations should confront pro-Israel bullies, not appease them.
10.25.2007 | The Guardian
By Ghada Karmi
The newest and least attractive import from America, following on behind Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Friends, is the pro-Israel lobby. The latest target of this US-style campaign is the august Oxford Union.
This week, two Israeli colleagues and I were due to appear at the union to participate in an important debate on the one-state solution in Israel-Palestine. Also invited was the American Jewish scholar and outspoken critic of Israel, Norman Finkelstein. At the last minute, however, the union withdrew its invitation to him, apparently intimidated by threats from various pro-Israel groups.
The Harvard Jewish lawyer and indefatigable defender of Israel, Alan Dershowitz, attacked the topic of the debate as well as the Oxford Union itself. In an article headlined "Oxford Union is dead", he accused it of having become "a propaganda platform for extremist views", and castigated its choice of what he termed anti-Israel and anti-semitic speakers.
Yet Dershowitz could have restored the balance as he saw it; he was the first person invited by the Oxford Union to oppose the motion but he declined due, as he put it, to "the terms of the debate and my proposed teammates".
Dershowitz's article attacking the Oxford Union appeared in the Jerusalem Post in Israel and Frontpage magazine in the US. [Because of British defamation laws Cif has been advised not to provide a link - Ed.]
Dershowitz and Finkelstein were protagonists in a much-publicised academic row in the US, though it is unclear whether this has any relevance to the Oxford Union spat.
In solidarity with Finkelstein and to oppose this gross interference in British democratic life, the three of us on the "one state" side - myself, Avi Shlaim, of St Anthony's College, Oxford, and the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe - decided to withdraw from the debate. This was not an easy decision, since the topic was timely and necessary given the current impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, where innovative solutions are in short supply.
Dershowitz and the other pro-Israel activists may rejoice at their success in derailing an important discussion. But it is of little comfort to those of us who care about freedom of speech in this country. Last May, Dershowitz interfered in British academic life when the University and College Union voted overwhelmingly to debate the merits of boycotting Israeli institutions. He teamed up with a British Jewish lawyer, Anthony Julius, and others, threatening to "devastate and bankrupt" anyone acting against Israeli universities.
In another example of these bullying tactics, the Royal Society of Medicine, one of Britain's most venerable medical institutions, came under an attack this month, unprecedented in its 200 year history. It had invited Dr Derek Summerfield, a psychiatrist (who has also documented Israelős medical abuses against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories), to its conference on Religion, Spirituality and Mental Health. The RSM was immediately bombarded with threats from pro-Israel doctors demanding Dr Summerfield's removal on the grounds that he was époliticalő and biased, and that the RSM's charitable status would be challenged if he remained. Intimidated, the RSM asked Dr Summerfield to withdraw, although they later reinstated him.
The power of the Israel lobby in America is legendary. It demonstrates its influence at many levels. Campus Watch is a network that monitors alleged anti-Israel activity in US academic institutions. The difficulties of promotion in the US for scholars deemed anti-Israeli are notorious. The notable Palestinian academic, Edward Said, was subjected to an unrelenting campaign by pro-Israel groups at Columbia University with threats on his life. His successor, Rashid Khalidi, is the current object of the same campaign of vilification and attack. Finkelstein himself has been denied tenure at his university and everywhere else. The authors of a recent study of the Israel lobby's influence on US foreign policy have been called anti-semites and white supremacists. Former president Jimmy Carter's book, Palestine: peace not apartheid, has earned him the label of "Jew-hater" and Nazi sympathiser. The British publisher, Pluto Press, is likely to be dropped by its American distributors, the University of Michigan Press, because pro-Israel groups accuse it of including "anti-Semitic" (ie pro-Palestinian/critical of Israel) books on its list.
Such activities are familiar in the US. People there are hardened or resigned to having their freedom of expression limited by the pro-Israel lobby, and the threats of Dershowitz would cause no surprise to anyone. But Britain is different, naively innocent in the face of US-style assaults on its scholars and institutions. No wonder that those who have been attacked give in so quickly, nervous of something they do not understand. The UCU leadership, shocked and intimidated by the ferocious reaction to the boycott motion from pro-Israel groups, resorted to legal advice to extricate itself and announced in September that a call to boycott Israeli institutions would be "unlawful". The Oxford Union jettisoned one of its participants rather than stand up to the threats of its critics. The RSM tried to distance the offending speaker from its conference to protect itself from abuse.
All this is understandable, but it is exactly the wrong response. Appeasing bullies like Dershowitz will not stop them. It will rather encourage them to go further. The question is, do we in this country want a McCarthyite witch hunt? If not, then we must confront the bullies and expose them for the intellectual terrorists they are, bent on destroying the values of a free society. To do otherwise will invite the fate of all repressed people, cowed and intimidated, hating their tormentors, but too afraid to say so. |
shame on the oxford union |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
faceless
admin
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
I wonder why these institutions are so intimidated?
Though, I also have to wonder at the fact that twice today I've seen universities attacked for encouraging extremist speakers. Firstly in the case of Nick Griffin and now this one. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:34 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
the oxford union had nick griffin speak apparently!
normans not extremist |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
|
Couchtripper - 2005-2015
|
