Norman Finkelstein: Holocaust Denier

A couple of days ago I presented information on this weblog which accused Professor John Esposito of being an Islamic apologist. I then took the opportunity to scold both the Office of Student Development (OSD) and the Marquette University Student Government (MUSG) for sponsoring a presentation/book signing he gave on campus and for taking portions of our tuition payments to pay him for the speech. I return tonight to reprimand four organizations from within the Marquette University campus, two of which have already been covered by this site before – OSD, MUSG, JUSTICE, and ASA (Arab Student Association) – for yet again wasting portions of our tuition payments to pay for a presentation entitled “The Politics of Anti-Semitism” to be given by Dr. Norman Finkelstein tonight at 7pm. Finkelstein, a political science professor from DePaul University in Chicago, has attracted an audience which have categorized him, positively, as a Holocaust revisionist, while others who are more in the know define him more accurately as a Holocaust denier.

While researching information concerning Dr. Norman Finkelstein, one piece of information which I found especially intriguing kept repeatedly popping up in the Google searches I performed – Finkelstein has been and continues to be a close friend of Noam Chomsky, quite honestly one of the most blatant anti-Semites in this country as well as the world, outside of the Middle East region of course. And that was merely the first red flag which gave cause for concern for those who would be attending his speech this evening and how their views on the Jews and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict would be warped by a man who considered the Israeli security as evil as “the Gestapo”, or even more so.



Again, to clarify what I am saying here, I am not stating that Dr. Norman Finkelstein does not have the right to give his opinions concerning the Holocaust, Judaism, Israel, the Middle East region, or terrorism. I believe thoroughly that everyone in this country is entitled to their opinions and has the right to express them as long as they caused no physical harm or endangered the lives of others around them. With that being said, he should be given a soap-box on which stand and express his hate-mongering on any corner of this campus he finds to be most suitable for his anti-Semitic views instead of being paid with funds from our tuition payments expressing within the sanctity of this hollowed institution.

I ask that everyone who is concerned about Dr. Norman Finkelstein venting his hatred of the Jews toward the students of this university or any other hate-monger who is invited to speak on campus corrupting the minds of the student body to voice their objections to both the Office of Student Development and the Marquette University Student Government and demand an explanation for the repeated behavior of booking speakers whose behavior and opinions clearly go against the moral ethics and values on whic this university was founded.

Update – I have made some slight changes to the following entry (as of 7pm this evening). First off, I have replaced the line which stated Finkelstein referred to himself as a “Holocaust revisionist”, when in fact it was a category which the main audience his work has attracted has placed him in, positively of course. I apologize for the mix-up. I wrote this late at night and I must have misread a source, not noticing the mistake until someone had pointed it out to me. And secondly, it was brought to my attention that an article which ran earlier this month on The Marquette Warrior weblog discussed the subject of Norman Finkelstein similarly to what is being divulged here. I have placed a link to this article in this entry for readers to access.