Norman Finkelstein, Courtesy of YouTube
The following is an opinion contribution and reflects the author’s views alone.
I always thought that Princeton was different. I thought the academy, in its erudition, was resistant to a resurgent, global, and vicious anti-Semitism. Last week, I realized that I was wrong. But Jew-hatred didn’t just crash the party. Princeton and some of its student groups issued an invitation to anti-Semitism, and it promptly RSVP’d.
Norman Finkelstein, a noxious and malignant purveyor of prejudice, was invited to join a panel titled, “Fighting for Justice, From Gaza to Ferguson: Black and Palestinian Solidarity.” The event was co-sponsored by the African American Studies Department, the Carl A. Fields Center for Diversity and Dialogue, Alliance of Jewish Progressives, Princeton Committee on Palestine, and Princeton Young Democratic Socialists. When it comes to attacking Jews, it seems as though recruiting allies is not a problem.
Finkelstein is more than a mere critic of Israel. He claims that Israel is illegitimate. He calls Israel a “satanic state” from “the boils of hell.” And, he challenges Israel’s fundamentally unique quality — its Jewishness — as racist. Never has he attacked France for its French identity or Japan for its Japanese character. Only Israel; only the Jews. For Finkelstein, the line between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism isn’t just blurry. It’s nonexistent.
“But Finkelstein is a Jew; he can’t be anti-Semitic,” his defenders will reply. Like all of us, he should not be judged by his ethnicity or religion, but by the substance of his ideas. By that standard, Finkelstein is a bigot. Those who were complicit in inviting him are accomplices in his hate. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Do not be fooled by Finkelstein’s high-minded language or dizzying political turns. Hate is often couched in nuance. Do not give it that comfort. Recognize it for what it is. To stand with Hamas and Hezbollah, whose leaders have called for the annihilation of world Jewry, is akin to standing with the Nazi Party. Hate is hate.
In his remarks on campus, Finkelstein attacked Jacob Katz, a Princeton student who has served in the Israeli army, as a “concentration camp guard.” Katz is a grandson of Holocaust survivors. Finkelstein refused to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah, U.S. designated terrorist organizations who are contaminated with anti-Semitism to their very cores. He denied Israel any right to self-defense and preposterously described missile attacks from Gaza as “not rockets, [but] fireworks.” Finkelstein also asserted that U.S. Representative John Lewis, a giant of the Civil Rights Movement, was corrupted by the “very rich Jewish community.” During his University-sponsored tirade, Finkelstein accused Israelis of “drinking the blood of those children,” an explicit invocation of the medieval blood libel that was used as a pretext to exterminate Jews for centuries.
Worst of all was his call to violence. He declared that we carry the same obligation to kill Israelis as Americans had towards slave catchers. “Shoot them dead,” he said. All the while, Finkelstein’s co-panelists – University Professor of African American Studies Joshua Guild and Amnesty International USA Country Specialist for Israel/Palestine Edith Garwood – sat silent and listened to Finkelstein’s poison. The audience giggled and snickered. What profiles in courage!
Finkelstein’s inexcusable statements were foreseeable. A simple skim of his Wikipedia page reveals his stated solidarity with Hezbollah and support for targeting Israeli civilians. Did the African American Studies Department not find these statements disqualifying of an invitation? In what way does Finkelstein’s presence further the Fields Center’s goal to “promote a sense of belonging that permeates throughout all aspects of the Princeton community?”
Who won’t the Alliance of Jewish Progressives endorse to be seen as intersectionally woke? The organization couldn’t even unite all of its members for a lukewarm condemnation. Why couldn’t the Princeton Committee on Palestine bring themselves to dispute Finkelstein’s characterization of Israel, instead only criticizing his “behavior [which] derailed the conversation and distracted from [their] main goal”? Are the Princeton Young Democratic Socialists truly under the spell that anti-Semitism cannot disguise itself as anti-Zionism?
I fear that to answer these questions is just as troubling as to ask them. The organizers of the event knew whom they were inviting. I raised concerns about Finkelstein’s past comments with the Director of the Carl A. Fields Center Tennille Haynes and members of the Alliance of Jewish Progressives. Neither group was deterred from sponsoring the event.
The Carl A. Fields Center assured me that the sponsoring group “did their due diligence in vetting speakers and organizing the event” and that this was all “check[ed] with departments and co-sponsors of the event for their thoughts.” It is hard to know whether to cry from the recklessness of their sponsorship or laugh at their incompetence.
For Jews today, there is a greater tragedy than the Norman Finkelsteins of the world. It is the normalizers – those who welcome and render mainstream people like him – who invite him to prestigious universities and pretend that he can be distinguished from a white supremacist or an Islamophobe.
This past October, an American Jewish community in Pittsburgh was victim to a pogrom and the largest murder of Jews on American soil. This past May, Congress could not unite to singularly condemn the anti-Semitism espoused by one of its members. Last week, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, a German attempted to massacre Jews gathered in synagogue.
Today’s climate is alarming.
For an afternoon last week, the University hosted a session of Finkelstein’s target practice. Such a hateful event should have been condemned unequivocally. Instead, members of the Princeton community joined a reprehensible history of normalizing anti-Semitism.
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