Jul 25 2007
ACADEMIA UNDER FIRE AS DEPAUL DENIES TENURE
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By George Beres
7/25/07
When an outspoken professor at DePaul University was denied tenure in June, it was an important national story. Yet few publications outside Illinois gave it more than passing notice. Or it was minimized by placement, such as at the New York Times, where denial to Political Science Professor Norman Finkelstein was placed in the Arts Section.
Those who bypass the story ignore the underlying issue—growing influence of Zionism– which knows no geographic nor cultural boundaries. It is a warning to academia, whose faculty everywhere need be concerned when a teacher is attacked by a colleague because of his views on Israel.
Finkelstein, who happens to be Jewish, wrote the book, “The Holocaust Industry.” He is not a so-called holocaust denier, his parents having survived the Nazi death camps. But he suggests public image of the horror has been manipulated in behalf of illegal Israeli expansion. That got an orchestrated response from a professor 1,000 miles east of DePaul, Alan Dershowitz of Harvard, who urged denial of tenure because of supposed inconsistencies in Finkelstein’s research.
Finkelstein’s department voted 9-3 to grant him tenure, backed by a 5-0 vote by the College Personnel Committee. A subsequent 4-3 vote by the school’s Board on Promotion and Tenure denied Finkelstein. President Dennis Holtschneider supported that decision. At the same time, tenure was denied lecturer Mehrene Larudee, supporter of Finkelstein, who unanimously had been approved by her department, the dean and the Personnel Committee.
So what’s at play here? To those subjected to the influence of Zionist groups (including this writer), it appears their spokesman in eastern academia, Dershowitz, got his way. Possessor of strong views in behalf of Israel, his effort to label Finkelstein a self-hating Jew seems to have won out.
He admits that last September he sent a letter to DePaul faculty members, urging they oppose tenure for Finkelstein. The letter accused him of a conspiracy with noted Jewish scholar, Noam Chomsky, to attack 10 Jewish scholars, allegedly calling them hucksters, hoaxers and extortionists. Differences between the campus protagonists surfaced with publication of Dershowitz’s book, “The Case for Israel,” which then was contradicted by Finkelstein’s book, “Beyond Chutzpah.”
My experience with behavior of three Dershowitz-styled professors at the University of Oregon suggests the same verdict would have been reached there. I’ve found support for Israel has an intimidating effect on free expression on the college campus, as well as in society.
Published letters from three Oregon professors labeled me anti-Semitic. They reacted to my published letter calling for creation of a Middle East Studies program to fill a serious vacuum in the curriculum, and to offset imbalance for the Israeli perspective in a new program of Judaic Studies.
It should be of no consequence that two are Jewish and one a convert to Judaism. What should be of concern is that their behavior reflects patterns of Zionists who urge, “Describe as anti-Semitic anyone who in any way criticizes Israel.”
I asked Prof. Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois Law School his reaction. He said: “It is a disgrace that DePaul succumbed to political pressure for this major injustice on Prof. Finkelstein. I have read almost every book he has written. He is an outstanding scholar who has had and will continue to have momentous impact on Middle East Studies. Prof. Dershowitz publicly admitted he serves on a Mossad Committee that authorizes murder and assassination of Palestinians, a grave violation of the Geneva Convention, and a serious war crime. In my view, Prof. Finkelstein far better represents values and ethics of Jewish people.”
That view was shared by 30 DePaul students who met with Pres.Holtschneider in his E. Jackson executive office during exam week at the school. They presented a petition of 700 signatures urging both professors be tenured.
Finkelstein said he would leave Chicago for New York, where he hopes to continue teaching, though the “blacklist effect” of tenure denial may, in his words, “probably bar me from having a college classroom.”
In response to media attention, President Holtschneider said: “Academic freedom is alive and well at DePaul.”
It does not sound like it to a preeminent Holocaust historian, Raul Hilberg, who said of Finkelstein: “He has the academic courage to speak the truth when no one else is there to support him. His honored place in the history of writing history is assured.”
(The writer, a retired journalist in Eugene, Ore., has been a member of the Oregon Interreligious Council for Peace in the Middle East. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.)
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Being neither a Jew, Christian nor Islamic (I subscribe to no war Gods), but a student of history, I wish to add my opinion on the above subject. I personally do not know if six hundred or six billion Jews were systematically exterminated during Hitler’s War. I also do not know if Russia, when under the rule of Jewish leadership, exterminated six hundred or six billion Christians. I also do not know how many Arabs were exterminated during the Crusades, under the leadership of Christians. Nor do I know of any exact figures as to how many Palestinians have been exterminated under present Jewish occupation. I do feel that in fact all of the humans mentioned above were immorally and illegally exterminated. I do not know if there is a statute of limitations on extermination but if there is none, I suggest that we call the “game” of extermination be called a draw and everyone go back to their own homes and contemplate on how to make this a better world without the use of extermination as a political or religious weapon. This might anger the war Gods somewhat but personally, I don’t give a (fill in your own choice of expletive), do you? —jws
The absurdly gratituitous allussion to “Holocaust” or “Anti-Semitism”is now officially a parody of itself.
From here on in, those insane enough to resort to these insufferably insincere references should be required to play a canned laughter track after every incident….sickening.
What can a person do to fight against such a large foe as your own country? It seems that no matter where you spend your money it will end up in the hands of the people tearing this country to shreds. The enormity of the problem in the USA causes me to become paralized. Our choices of to whom we can vote for to be president are as undemocratic as the rest of our everyday decisions that we have to make to survive. Choose from the siver spoon, upper class, tainted by money or power delegates. I believe that due to our ( us gov ) constant interfernce with other countries that we ( USA ) are deserved target of an Iranian nuke. Who could blame them? Is it just me or does anyone else enjoy interviews with the Iranian leader? Not to say he isn’t a bit frightening but I like his ” I don’t give a shit” attitude toward questions about the US government. Is it best to fight? Where does someone start? Or rather to leave this country? Surely there must be a small corner of China or Russia that people could inhabit without being monipulated by groups with sinister, self serving MO’s. Or perhaps we could reorganize a backward ass state such as Arizona or Texas. Israel did it. HOW does someone survive ( economically, parenting ) in a society that is controlled by evil people and where the mass majority seem to be blind to what is going on. How the hell has Bush and Chaney not been impeached, fired, dismissed or taken out? Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, have a nice day! Oh, and is true communism a bad thing?
I just wanted to comment on David’s post. Why would you say something stupid like “we are deserved target of an Iranian nuke”? Why would Iran, al-CIAada, or whoever, want to attack the American people in any way, when everyone who knows what’s going on knows Americans have been victimized by psychological warfare for two generations. To say that you admire the Iranian leader’s “I don’t give a shit” attitude makes most of us wonder why you are reading this website at all. If you want to leave this country, go ahead, but you can’t run from this machine forever. Eventually, a massive educational movement will have to rise up in this country and render this machine impotent via a collective awakening. Violence is a primitive and idiotic tactic at this stage of the game. In fact, the people in charge are begging stupid westerners who have no idea what the hell’s going on to react violently in some way, so they may institute the final stages of control. They may even use patsy’s to make it appear that this has happened anyway, mind-controlled or retarded. The entire point of all of this of course is world government, a global system dominated by a few thousand men and their “middle management” mercenaries around the world. Worst of all the people in charge are obsessed with drastically depopulating the earth, and have the full capababilities to do so if they wanted to. Lastly, it doesn’t surprise me that you are leaning towards communism. Our education system, along with most being implemented around the world over the last 3-10 decades, is communist. School-to-work, tolerance of everything, deterministic apathy, moral destruction, gender destruction, etc. This is what has happened. Start reading.