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Norman G. Finkelstein (born 1953) is a Jewish American professor of political science at DePaul University known for meticulous scholarship and advocacy of positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which are viewed as controversial by Zionists. He has been highly critical of exploitation of Holocaust survivors by Zionist organizations and has written extensively on the ideological abuse of anti-semitism and the Holocaust by supporters of Zionism and of Israel. Finkelstein is the son of Holocaust survivors and the author of five books, of which the most prominent are Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict,The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering and Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.

Doctoral Thesis and Exposure of From Time Immemorial

Finkelstein wrote his Princeton doctoral thesis on Zionism, and it was through this work that he first attracted controversy. In 1984, while Finkelstein was still at Princeton, he began to write a critical review of Joan Peters' book From Time Immemorial in which he examined every footnote and concluded that the book was a "monumental hoax." A "history and defense" of the state of Israel, Peters' book had been effusively praised in mainstream United States media sources. Finkelstein's charges initially roused little attention in the U.S. According to Finkelstein, "By the end of 1984, From Time Immemorial had...received some two hundred [favorable] notices...in the United States. The only 'false' notes in this crescendoing chorus of praise were the Journal of Palestine Studies, which ran a highly critical review by Bill Farrell; the small Chicago-based newsweekly In These Times, which published a condensed version of this writer's findings; and Alexander Cockburn, who devoted a splendid series of columns in The Nation to exposing the hoax....The periodicals in which From Time Immemorial had already been favorably reviewed refused to run any critical correspondence (e.g. The New Republic, Atlantic, Commentary). Periodicals that had yet to review the book rejected a manuscript on the subject as of little or no consequence (e.g. The Village Voice, Dissent, The New York Review of Books). Not a single national newspaper or columnist contacted found newsworthy that a best-selling, effusively praised 'study' of the Middle East conflict was a threadbare hoax" (Finkelstein, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, pp. 45-6). However, after a number of reviewers in the British and Israeli media supported of Finkelstein's criticisms, a few U.S. journals began publishing more critical reviews of the book. Today, largely as a result of Finkelstein's analysis and criticism, Peters' book is widely discredited among scholars.

Since his exposure of Peters' volume, Finkelstein has since gone on to write extensively on what he describes as a growing industry of similarly fraudulent studies on the Middle East. Finkelstein alleges that Zionists in America are engaged in a sustained and massive effort to decieve and defraud by concocting largely fictitious "scholarship" on the Middle East, and by generating the illusion that well-established and universalyl accepted facts about the Middle East are merely "controversial."

Finkelstein and Chomsky

At Princeton, the hostility that Finkelstein received threatened his ability to earn his Ph.D. Noam Chomsky, who is a friend of Finkelstein, writes in Understanding Power that Finkelstein "literally could not get the faculty to read [his thesis]." According to Chomsky, in the end, Princeton granted Finkelstein his doctorate only "out of embarrassment," though they didn't "even write a letter for him saying that he was a student at Princeton University." (Understanding Power, New York, 2002, p. 245 [1])

"The Holocaust Industry"

In The Holocaust Industry, he documents the evolution of the "big business" of Holocaust reparations, which he characterizes as a largely corrupt "racket" - a morally fraudulent blackmail scheme - in which little if any of the money generated actually goes to victims, and in which much of the money goes instead to Israel and Zionist organizations abroad.

Criticism by the Anti-Defamation League

Finkelstein has frequently criticized the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as an organization dedicated not to defense against anti-semitism, but to defamation of critics of Israel. Ultimately, he argues, the ADL trivializes real anti-semitism by "crying wolf" over fraudulent allegations of "the new anti-semitism." Predictably, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called Finkelstein a "Holocaust denier" and accused him of pursuing an anti-Semitic agenda, accusations Finkelstein flatly dismisses. "I am Jewish and my parents are Holocaust survivors. With others you could say, 'you're an anti-Semite' or 'you're a Holocaust denier,' [but] you can't do that with me," he once responded, "you have to argue the facts."

Finkelstein and Alan Dershowitz

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/img/nf_ap0715_3.jpg

In addition to his denunciation of Peters herself, Finkelstein has accused Alan Dershowitz of extensive "whole-cloth borrowings" from Joan Peters' discredited research without acknowledgement, pointing to numerous passages where Dershowitz quoted exactly the same excerpts that Peters footnoted in her book, but where Dershowitz referenced only their original sources and not Peters. Finkelstein argues persuasively and with copious footnotes of his own that Dershowitz has engaged in large-scale plagiarism, and that his conduct is a violation of fundamental and accepted scholarly procedure of a sort which would lead to any student's dismissal from Harvard. Dershowitz objects. (See Dershowitz-Finkelstein affair.)

Finkelstein subsequently expanded his findings in a devastating volume entitled Beyond Chutzpah, which was published on 28 August 2005 by the University of California Press (UCP) despite threats of legal action by Alan Dershowitz and purported solicitation by Dershowitz of aid from California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger to intervene to forbid publication of the book.

Quotes

Noam Chomsky: "I'm delighted to hear that I'll be followed shortly by Norman Finkelstein and would very strongly advise you to come listen to him. Not only [is he] an old personal friend but a person who can speak with more authority and insight on these topics than anyone I can think of. So that should be a memorable occasion and I urge that you not miss the opportunity." [2]

Leon Wieseltier: "He's poison, a disgusting self-hating Jew, something you find under a rock."

Raul Hilberg: "I would now say in retrospect that he was actually conservative, moderate and that his conclusions [in The Holocaust Industry] are trustworthy.... I am by no means the only one who, in the coming months or years, will totally agree with Finkelstein's breakthrough."[3]

Bibliography

(translator) The Future of Maoism, by Samir Amir, Monthly Review, 1983 (ISBN 0853456224)
Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict: Verso, 1995 (ISBN 1859843395)
Rise and Fall of Palestine: A Personal Account of the Intifada Years, University of Minnesota, 1996 (ISBN 0816628599)
(with Ruth Bettina Birn) A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth, Henry Holt and Co., 1998 (ISBN 0805058729)
(contributor) The Politics of Anti-Semitism, edited by Alexander Cockburn & Jeffrey St. Clair, AK Press, 2001 (ISBN 1902593774)
The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, Verso, 2003 (ISBN 185984488X)
Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History , University of California Press, 2005 (ISBN 0520245989)

External links

Appearances:

Criticisms:

Daniel Goldhagen, The New Discourse of Avoidance
- Norman Finkelstein, Response to Goldhagen
William Rubinstein et al., Letters on the Uses of the Holocaust
Omer Bartov, A Tale of Two Holocausts
Edward Alexander, The Dream-Jew of the Anti-Semites
Paul Bogdanor, The Finkelstein Phenomenon
Anti-Defamation League, Letter on Finkelstein
Alan Dershowitz, The Hazards of Making the Case for Israel
Alan Dershowitz, The Norman Finkelstein Top Ten Lists

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[Image:Norman finkelstein democracynow.jpg|right|frame]]
-'''Norman G. Finkelstein''' (born [[1953]]) is a [[Jewish American]] professor of [[political science]] at [[DePaul University]] known for advocating controversial positions on the [[Israeli-Palestinian conflict]] and for criticizing the way the [[Holocaust]] is handled by most parties and organizations. He is the son of Holocaust survivors and the author of five books, of which the most prominent are ''[[Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict]]'',''[[The Holocaust Industry|The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering]]'' and ''[[Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History]]''.
+'''Norman G. Finkelstein''' (born [[1953]]) is a [[Jewish American]] professor of [[political science]] at [[DePaul University]] known for meticulous scholarship and advocacy of positions on the [[Israeli-Palestinian conflict]] which are viewed as controversial by Zionists.  He has been highly critical of exploitation of [[Holocaust]] survivors by Zionist organizations and has written extensively on the ideological abuse of anti-semitism and the [[Holocaust]] by supporters of Zionism and of Israel.  Finkelstein is the son of Holocaust survivors and the author of five books, of which the most prominent are ''[[Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict]]'',''[[The Holocaust Industry|The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering]]'' and ''[[Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History]]''.
 ==Doctoral Thesis and Exposure of ''From Time Immemorial''==
-Finkelstein wrote his [[Princeton University|Princeton]] doctoral thesis on [[Zionism]], and it was through this work that he first attracted controversy. In 1984, while Finkelstein was still at Princeton, he began to write a critical review of [[Joan Peters]]' book ''[[From Time Immemorial]]'' in which he examined every footnote and concluded that the book was a "monumental hoax." A "history and defense" of the state of Israel, Peters' book had been effusively praised in mainstream [[United States]] media sources. Finkelstein's charges initially roused little attention in the U.S.  According to Finkelstein, "By the end of 1984, ''From Time Immemorial'' had...received some two hundred [favorable] notices...in the United States. The only 'false' notes in this crescendoing chorus of praise were the ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', which ran a highly critical review by Bill Farrell; the small Chicago-based newsweekly ''In These Times'', which published a condensed version of this writer's findings; and Alexander Cockburn, who devoted a splendid series of columns in ''The Nation'' to exposing the hoax....The periodicals in which ''From Time Immemorial'' had already been favorably reviewed refused to run any critical correspondence (e.g. ''The New Republic'', ''Atlantic'', ''Commentary''). Periodicals that had yet to review the book rejected a manuscript on the subject as of little or no consequence (e.g. ''The Village Voice'', ''Dissent'', ''The New York Review of Books''). Not a single national newspaper or columnist contacted found newsworthy that a best-selling, effusively praised 'study' of the Middle East conflict was a threadbare hoax" (Finkelstein, ''Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict'', pp. 45-6).  However, after a number of reviewers in the British and Israeli media supported of Finkelstein's criticisms, a few U.S. journals began publishing more critical reviews of the book.  Today, partly as a result of Finkelstein's analysis and criticism, Peters' book is widely discredited among scholars.  Finkelstein's findings appear in ''ibid.'', chapter 2.
+Finkelstein wrote his [[Princeton University|Princeton]] doctoral thesis on [[Zionism]], and it was through this work that he first attracted controversy. In 1984, while Finkelstein was still at Princeton, he began to write a critical review of [[Joan Peters]]' book ''[[From Time Immemorial]]'' in which he examined every footnote and concluded that the book was a "monumental hoax." A "history and defense" of the state of Israel, Peters' book had been effusively praised in mainstream [[United States]] media sources. Finkelstein's charges initially roused little attention in the U.S.  According to Finkelstein, "By the end of 1984, ''From Time Immemorial'' had...received some two hundred [favorable] notices...in the United States. The only 'false' notes in this crescendoing chorus of praise were the ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', which ran a highly critical review by Bill Farrell; the small Chicago-based newsweekly ''In These Times'', which published a condensed version of this writer's findings; and Alexander Cockburn, who devoted a splendid series of columns in ''The Nation'' to exposing the hoax....The periodicals in which ''From Time Immemorial'' had already been favorably reviewed refused to run any critical correspondence (e.g. ''The New Republic'', ''Atlantic'', ''Commentary''). Periodicals that had yet to review the book rejected a manuscript on the subject as of little or no consequence (e.g. ''The Village Voice'', ''Dissent'', ''The New York Review of Books''). Not a single national newspaper or columnist contacted found newsworthy that a best-selling, effusively praised 'study' of the Middle East conflict was a threadbare hoax" (Finkelstein, ''Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict'', pp. 45-6).  However, after a number of reviewers in the British and Israeli media supported of Finkelstein's criticisms, a few U.S. journals began publishing more critical reviews of the book.  Today, largely as a result of Finkelstein's analysis and criticism, Peters' book is widely discredited among scholars.
+Since his exposure of Peters' volume, Finkelstein has since gone on to write extensively on what he describes as a growing industry of similarly fraudulent studies on the Middle East.  Finkelstein alleges that Zionists in America are engaged in a sustained and massive effort to decieve and defraud by concocting largely fictitious "scholarship" on the Middle East, and by generating the illusion that well-established and universalyl accepted facts about the Middle East are merely "controversial."
 ==Finkelstein and Chomsky==
@@ Line 10: / Line 13: @@
 At Princeton, the hostility that Finkelstein received threatened his ability to earn his Ph.D. [[Noam Chomsky]], who is a friend of Finkelstein, writes in ''[[Understanding Power]]'' that Finkelstein "literally could not get the faculty to read [his thesis]." According to Chomsky, in the end, Princeton granted Finkelstein his doctorate only "out of embarrassment," though they didn't "even write a letter for him saying that he was a student at Princeton University." (''Understanding Power'', New York, 2002, p. 245 [http://www.chomsky.info/books/power01.htm])
+=="The Holocaust Industry"==
-==Controversial Opinions==
+In ''The Holocaust Industry'', he documents the evolution of the "big business" of [[Holocaust reparations]], which he characterizes as a largely corrupt "racket" - a morally fraudulent blackmail scheme - in which little if any of the money generated actually goes to victims, and in which much of the money goes instead to Israel and Zionist organizations abroad.
-Finkelstein has taken other controversial positions. In ''The Holocaust Industry'', he described [[Holocaust reparations]] as a corrupt "racket," in which little of the money actually goes to victims. He has also challenged the characterization of the Holocaust as a uniquely evil historical event, and likened Israeli security to the [[Gestapo]].  Questioned explicitly about his views on [[terrorism]], Finkelstein has said that rather than violence, [[Palestinians]] should pursue independence through "non-violent civil revolt."
 ==Criticism by the Anti-Defamation League==
-The [[Anti-Defamation League]] (ADL) called Finkelstein a "[[Holocaust denial|Holocaust denier]]" and accused him of pursuing an anti-Semitic agenda. Finkelstein has called the ADL's accusations against him empty and undeserved. "I am Jewish and my parents are Holocaust survivors. With others you could say, 'you're an anti-Semite' or 'you're a Holocaust denier,' [but] you can't do that with me," he once responded, "you have to argue the facts." Finkelstein was also called a "[[Self-hatred#Jewish self-hatred|self-hating Jew]]" on numerous occasions.
+Finkelstein has frequently criticized the [[Anti-Defamation League]] (ADL) as an organization dedicated not to defense against anti-semitism, but to defamation of critics of Israel.  Ultimately, he argues, the ADL trivializes real anti-semitism by "crying wolf" over fraudulent allegations of "the new anti-semitism."   Predictably, the [[Anti-Defamation League]] (ADL) called Finkelstein a "[[Holocaust denial|Holocaust denier]]" and accused him of pursuing an anti-Semitic agenda, accusations Finkelstein flatly dismisses. "I am Jewish and my parents are Holocaust survivors. With others you could say, 'you're an anti-Semite' or 'you're a Holocaust denier,' [but] you can't do that with me," he once responded, "you have to argue the facts."
 ==Finkelstein and Alan Dershowitz==
@@ Line 22: / Line 25: @@
 http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/img/nf_ap0715_3.jpg
-In addition to his denunciation of Peters herself, Finkelstein has accused [[Alan M. Dershowitz|Alan Dershowitz]] of using Peters' research without acknowledgement, pointing to passages where Dershowitz quoted exactly the same excerpts that Peters footnoted in her book, but where Dershowitz referenced only their original sources and not Peters. Finkelstein regards this as plagiarism, a charge that Dershowitz denies. (''See [[Dershowitz-Finkelstein affair]].'')
+In addition to his denunciation of Peters herself, Finkelstein has accused [[Alan M. Dershowitz|Alan Dershowitz]] of extensive "whole-cloth borrowings" from Joan Peters' discredited research without acknowledgement, pointing to numerous passages where Dershowitz quoted exactly the same excerpts that Peters footnoted in her book, but where Dershowitz referenced only their original sources and not Peters. Finkelstein argues persuasively and with copious footnotes of his own that Dershowitz has engaged in large-scale plagiarism, and that his conduct is a violation of fundamental and accepted scholarly procedure of a sort which would lead to any student's dismissal from Harvard.  Dershowitz objects.  (''See [[Dershowitz-Finkelstein affair]].'')
-Finkelstein has expanded his findings in a book entitled ''Beyond Chutzpah'', which was to be published by the [[University of California Press]] (UCP) on [[June 1]], [[2005]], in spite of threats of legal action by Alan Dershowitz. [http://www.workingtv.com/finkelstein.html].  On June 27, 2005, however, the banner "DERSHOWITZ WINS: University of California Press will not publish BEYOND CHUTZPAH." appeared on Finkelstein's website [http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/]. The press itself [http://www.ucpress.edu/] stated that it continued "to work with the author on editorial changes" to this work "of critical importance" and that it was "committed to working with the author to reach a mutually agreeable conclusion and to publish the book as scheduled in August." On July 9, 2005, editorial negotiations between Finkelstein's representatives and UCP came to a successful conclusion and ''Beyond Chutzpah'' was finally published on 28 August 2005.
+Finkelstein subsequently expanded his findings in a devastating volume entitled ''Beyond Chutzpah'', which was published on 28 August 2005 by the [[University of California Press]] (UCP) despite threats of legal action by Alan Dershowitz and purported solicitation by Dershowitz of aid from California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger to intervene to forbid publication of the book.
 == Quotes ==