DEPAUL UNIVERSITY CHALLENGES THE CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEE OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH EVEN ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS WHERE IT SHOULD BE MORE THAN A GUARANTEE; IT SHOULD BE A BIRTH RIGHT.
DePaul University in Chicago, in the spring of 2007 refused tenure to a professor who has written some very controversial articles and books on the Jewish state of Israel. Norman Finkelstein now has been fired from the University because of his controversial stands on Israel and the manner in which he lobs his arguments into the faces of others who happen to disagree with him
He has had a long standing debate with Alan Dershowitz of Harvard over the subject of Israel and particularly Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Dershowitz believes that Professor Finkelstein backs up his arguments with very weak scholarship while Finkelstein argues that Dershowitz has become a biased apologist for the Jewish state.
The basis of Finkelstein’s criticism of his faith’s only state is that Israel is violating international law with the aid and assistance of the United States in its attacks on Palestinians and its recent invasion into Lebanon.
He has written several books including the following: Image and Reality of the Israeli-Palestine Conflict, The Holocaust Industry, Beyond Chutzpah: on the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History,
In the spring of 2007, the political science department of DePaul voted 9-3 to recommend to the University Board on Promotion and Tenure that it award tenure to Dr. Finkelstein. In addition, his department who knows him better than any group on campus having worked personally with him for years heaped praise on the professor. The College Personnel Committee endorsed the departments recommendation by a vote of 5-0.
However, in June the University Board on Promotions and Tenure denied the Assistant Professor tenure by a vote of 4-3. One simple vote. Who were these people and what is their relationship with the president of DePaul, with Dershowitz, and more specifically, what are their views on Israel?
There is something rotten in Denmark or in this case DePaul.
Rumor has it that the DePaul University President Dennis Holtschneider campaigned against tenure for the controversial professor because the “unprofessional personal attacks diverts the conversation away from consideration of ideas and polarizes and simplify conversations that deserve layered and subtle consideration.”
What other purpose does a university serve, if not to throw ideas around, argue, debate and fight for one’s own point of view? The University president is probably a rigid, uptight, conservative Catholic priest who is attempting to satisfy his constituents rather than preserve the sanctity of freedom of speech.
What makes the Finkelstein episode even more irrational is that Thomas Klocek who taught at DePaul for 14 years also was abruptly fired for the “crime of speaking of the pro-Israel, anti-alestinian” party line.
Again, we speak of the failure of the university to provide a safe haven for “freedom of speech” and “academic freedom” which are basic tenet’s of our higher educational philosophy. However, this case is on its way to the court room, where I have a sneaking suspicion DePaul is going to get its clock cleaned, and forced to come out from behind the mask of respectability behind which it has been hiding for some time.
A supporter of Finkelstein, Mehrene Larudee, who had the support of her international studies department, the Personnel Committee and Dean, was also denied tenure.
These two incidents are not isolated. There is a conspiracy of sorts going on at DePaul and it involves the President, some of the faculty, some of the alumni and some members of the University Board of Promotions and Tenure and that centers on the DePaul administration's failure to tolerate a robust dialogue of controversial issues.
The campus politics seems grounded in a pro-Israeli mindset and yet it fired Professor Klocek for his fierce anti-Palestinian posture.
A University lawyer unequivocally stated the neither Finkelstein nor Mehrene Larudee had the right to appeal the ruling of the University Committee on Promotions and Tenure. However, The Faculty Council later indicated that both professors had the right to appeal. Anne Bartlett, Council President said that she was “terribly concerned” that due process was not made available to both professors.
In a statement issued by the University following Dr. Finkelstein’s resignation, DePaul called the tenure-denied professor “A prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher.”
Dershowitz who earlier had written a letter to the President calling upon him to deny Finkelstein tenure, “expressed outrage at the compromise and the statement” they issued saying that DePaul had “traded truth for peace.”
There is also an effort to pass a “no confidence vote” of the administration at DePaul including its president.
While I know that Finkelstein was an ardent critic of Alan Dershowitz and his book entitled The Case for Israel. Finkelstein made charges against the Harvard law scholar of plagiarism and called into question Dershowitz authorship of the book.
These accusations provoked Dershowitz to contact some of the departments at DePaul to seek their support in denying Finkelstein's tenure.
Dershowitz has no business stricking his nose into the internal business of DePaul. Although, he is a prominent professor of law and a renowned scholar, his sense of his importance far exceeded his actual importance by involving himself in another professor’s life and work even if he violently disagreed with him.
Finkelstein has the right to his opinion and I must say that I concur with much of Finkelstein’s work.
You will find that the United States is the most purely pro-Israel country in the world. The European point of view is much more critical of the policies the Israeli government has pursued under recent Israeli Prime Ministers.
Under Bush, in particular, American foreign policy has alienated much of the Arab world. Because of strickly pro-Israeli stance, the United States is the most hated nation in the world today. In particular, in the Middle East, they hate us for our unambiguous pro-Israeli support at the expense of the Palestinians. They hate us for the well over $100 billion dollars we have given to Israel since its inception in contrast to the pennies we have handed out to the Arab nations. They hate us for not condemning Israel with our votes in the United Nations when it is obvious that Israel has violated international law particularly in its treatment of Palestinian prisoners. They hate us because they hate George W. Bush.
What is fascinating to me is the number of supportive book reviews Finkelstein has receive in England and Israel. Yes, you read me correctly; in Israel he has received an excellent and positive response. In America, the press is so frightened of the strength of the Jewish Lobby, even as the Congress genuflects before every issue the Israeli Lobby wants it to pass.
American journalists seldom write the truth about Israel's torment of the Palestinians because the Jewish Lobby has a major stake in most of he media in this country.
Finkelstein argues convincingly that the real issue with Israel is the way the government thwarts the civil rights of the Palestinians both inside and outside of Israel.
A number of events during these past few weeks give more and more credence to Dr. Finkelstein’s case. A study recently released points to the fact that fewer and fewer Israeli-Americans feel any loyalty to the state of Israel. More and more Conservative and Reformed Jews (that is all Jews except the Orthodox Jews) do not support what the state of Israel is doing to the Palestinians. In fact, it has been the Orthodox Jews that have perpetually blocked statehood for Palestine which would have ended the blood shed spilled between the two countries years ago.
Part of it has been our fault. It has never been worse than it is now. Bush and Rice redefine the word “incompetence” when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And it has not only been the Republicans. The Democrats have cow towed to the will of the Jewish lobby and have cost this country billions of dollars and millions of potential friends in the remainder of the world.
For Conservative Catholics and Evangelical Fundamentalists there is a direct connect between the Old and New Testaments. Therefore, they see Israel’s future tied directly into ours and visa versus.
That is not how I read the Bible. Jesus made an unequivocal break with the Old Testament and its rigid laws, its violence, and its debauchery. The God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New Testament. In particular, the God of Moses is not the God of Jesus.
Finklestein, Mehrene Larudee and Thomas Klocek have all been caught in the web of right-wing religion and punished because their views do not coincide with either the Catholic teachings or the Protestant teachings of the more conservative sects.
However, Finklestein,and Mehrene Larudee are right. Israel is violating the civil rights of the Palestinians nearly on a daily basis. This new fence is impinging upon land owned by Palestinian. They have arbitrarily established new boundaries for their nation which literally steals land declared by the United Nations to be the borders of a new Palestinian state.The Palestinians have been in limbo since 1948. Their leaders have sometimes led them astray. They have nothing--no homeland. little property, few possessions, few jobs and few supporters outside the Arab World.
But this much is true. Most nations of the world hate Israel for what they have continually done to the Palestinian refugees. And they hate America for our near sighted support of even the evil they do.
These professors should be reinstated at DePaul. The president is obviously out of his depths. He does not have the mindset to lead a University where freedom of speech and academic freedom should never be denied for any reason. The Board of Trustees should open an investigation into this matter and do it on behalf of freedom loving people everywhere.
And Dershowitz should go to hell and stay there.
Dr. Frank Menetree a former Editor-in-Chief of the UCLA Law Review published an analysis of the charges made by Dershowitz against Finkelstein and found no merit in any of the charges leveled against Finkelstein by the Harvard busy-body.
Raul Hilberg, a distinguished expert on the Holocaust, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, reviewed Finkelstein’s book, The Holocaust Industry and had this to say: “When I read Finkelstein’s book, The Holocaust Industry, at the time of its appearance, I was in the middle of my own investigation of these matters, and I came to the conclusion that he was on the right track. I refer now to the part of the book that deals with the claims against the Swiss banks, and the other claims pertaining to forced labor. I would say in retrospect that he a well-trained political scientist, has the ability to do the research, did it carefully, and has come up with the right results. I am by no means the only one who, in coming months or years will totally agree with Finkelstein’s breakthrough.”
And DePaul wants to refuse this man tenure? Your are idiots! You should be grateful that such a man would be willing to teach at your institution at all. You may wish to get yourself a president who is fair and just, who understands freedom even though he is Catholic and has had little experience with freedom of speech or academic freedom. In fact, you may want to investigate the people who populate your University Board on Promotion and Tenure. At least half of the members of that Board are looking at the world through their belly buttons.
1:20:10 AM 
|
