Norman Finkelstein’s speech

http://http://vimeo.com/10923758

Guest speaker

http://http://vimeo.com/10927914

Question and answer period moderated by political science professor Howard Schweber

Though death and destruction have become commonplace in the Middle East, one short conflict from more than a year ago sticks in American minds, controversial author Norman Finkelstein told a University of Wisconsin crowd Tuesday.

Labeled the Gaza War by the mainstream media, the three-week-long conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008-09 would more rightly be called a massacre, Finkelstein, the author of “This Time We Went Too Far: Truth & Consequences of the Gaza Invasion” said.

Finkelstein’s work has been criticized as academically questionable and overly polemical. He was denied tenure at DePaul University in 2007 for the controversial nature of his writings, despite the support of his department.

Although the nature of his writing may be distasteful to some academics, his followers find the facts he references to be the truly provocative elements of his message.

“For every one Israeli killed in those 22 days, 400 Palestinians died. For every one Israeli civilian killed, 400 Palestinian civilians were killed,” Finkelstein said.

Promulgated by “ideological weapons” that deter criticism of Israel, Finkelstein said Americans rarely recognize the true catastrophes Palestinians in the Gaza strip are subjected to at the hand of American-backed Israel.

Often criticized as a Jewish anti-Semite, Finkelstein was recently accused of being a Holocaust denier whose speech motivated the April 2009 shooting by a notorious white supremacist at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. The shooting left one security guard dead.

In response to an advertisement taken out by a renowned Holocaust denier on The Badger Herald’s website, a student speaking at the Holocaust Remembrance Rally on the UW campus this spring recently made this accusation.

It was this event that primarily motivated the Middle East Interest Group’s decision to bring Finkelstein to campus, according to Jesse Ayala, president of the group.

After hearing these remarks at the rally, Ayala said a number of members of the Middle East Interest Group were offended and contacted Finkelstein to come and speak.

Director of the UW Hillel Foundation Greg Steinberger said in terms of helping people figure out very complex, painful and emotional issues, Finkelstein was not a helpful voice.

“This is a first rate research institution,” Steinberger said. “There are plenty of qualified people on campus to talk about this kind of thing. Is he the best person to do that? I don’t think so.”

It was this dissimilarity to other scholars on campus that in part motivated the decision to bring Finkelstein here, Ayala said.

“One thing I have had a difficult time dealing with is a lot of scholars know so much about what they are studying and they are considered the highest authorities, yet they do very little to provoke action,” Ayala said.

Accompanying Finkelstein was British musician Lowkey and journalist Jody McIntyre who maintains the blog “Life on Wheels.”

McIntyre shared his own experience of time spent in the Middle East, retelling firsthand stories of Palestinian persecution.

Note: A video of the question and answer session will be posted this morning and should be viewable by early this afternoon. A highlights video may be posted over the weekend.