A DePaul Sit-in!
A group of students going by the name of Students for Justice for Finkelstein are holding a sit-in in support of the wronged professor. From Prof. Finkelstein’s site:
‘Upset over DePaul University’s denial of tenure to Professors Norman Finkelstein, and Mehrene Larudee, and after a meeting between 30 student leaders and DePaul President Fr. Dennis Holtschneider at his office, students have taken action to defend academic freedom which is under attack at the nation’s largest Catholic institution. After an unsuccessful meeting where their demands were ignored by the administration, DePaul students are continuing their sit-in overnight and through this week at the President’s office and plan to escalate action among the student body.
Student leaders called for Fr. Holtschneider to grant the professors tenure. They presented him with a petition of over 700 signatures calling for a reversal of the decision, and engaged in a heated discussion on the legitimacy of the university’s decision. The decision made at the secretive University-level overturned the tenure decisions made at the Departmental and College-levels, which approved Finkelstein’s position by votes of 9-3 and 5-0, respectively. Students were surprised by Larudee’s rejection as she was unanimously approved by both the Departmental and University level tenure committees. The student leaders cite Finkelstein and Larudee’s positive peer reviewed scholarship and flaws in the tenure process as reasons why they should receive tenure.’
Sign their petition at Finkelgate.com.
See here for a good article by Liaquat Ali Khan, a Law Professor at the Washington University School of Law, on Dershowitz, and here for a letter on the same topic by Francis Boyle, a Law Professor at the University of Illinois. This is a very good article detailing Dershowitz’ open support for war crimes and concluding the obvious, namely that the rejection of Finkelstein’s tenure bid was heavily influenced by external pressures.
(If you can stand it, go here and here to see the gloating of Dershowitz’ cronies and the Anti-Defamation League (which, as Finkelstein has put it in the past, specialises in the defamation of those who criticise Israel). However, you’ll probably want to take a shower or two afterwards.)
Prof. Finkelstein has, apparently, been inundated with messages of support. He has also, of course, received a lot of hate mail from people who are just over-the-moon that there is one less University academic willing to take a stand against the injustice perpetrated on the Palestinians. For an example of the kind of person who is pleased by DePaul’s decision, see this email, presumably from someone who would describe themselves as a “pro-Israel” supporter:
“From: Albert Bront begemot18[at]sbcglobal.net
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Re. Tenure
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 18:29:52 -0700 (PDT)Dear Finkelshithead, it is too bad that your nazi brethern did not roast your father in the owens of treblinka … you are a filthy cocksucker and you’ll soon be eating shit with your paleshitian brethern … (I cannot wait to see your shit-filled head lopped off by filthy arabs …)”.
Nice.
Update: ‘DePaul Professor Who Supported Finkelstein Also Was Denied Tenure‘.
Update II: Listen to Finkelstein talk about his tenure denial here.
Filed under: Activism, Israeli / Palestinian, News and politics, US | 10 Comments
Tags: Democracy, DePaul, Education, Free Speech, Norman Finkelstein
-
Subscribe to The Heathlander feed
-
Site Meter
Thank you for this article. I wish professor Finkelstein well and support the students in their efforts. It’s hard to speak the truth against such a strong propaganda machine but more and more the truth is coming out.
Cheers. Yeh, it’s an uphill struggle, but he seems determined to fight it, much to the benefit of us all.
People like Albert Bront need to be taken to the edge of the world and pushed off! I support the idea of a two-state partition so everyone is happy, it’s like splitting a cake between to fatties. (Thank you, Jamie, wanna go cinema tomorrow and watch Ocean’s 13.)
Ohhhh Baby, I want to see Dershowitz taken down for this.
Oh, that would be brilliant. Especially given that, presumably very self-confident after his successful blow to academic freedom in the U.S. re: Finkelstein, he’s already going after new targets.
100 lawyers? Bring it on! It would be really interesting to see Dershowitz try to break the boycott. He may have the rather spurious recent definition of anti-semitism on his side, but then the 2004 ICJ opinion stressed the responsibility of other states to thwart Israel’s crimes (the wall in particular).
And the EU’s definition isn’t even a legally binding one – it’s just a “working definition”. See here. The definition was largely drafted by Kenneth Stern, a leading member of the American Jewish Committee, which by all accounts is as bad as if not worse than AIPAC and the ADL in terms of balance and fairness on this topic. Arthur Nelsen wrote a good CiF article on it a while back, beginning,
Not to mention the fact that Dershowitz is very likely himself a war criminal by self-implication (he has admitted to serving on a Mossad Committee deciding who is and is not a legitimate target for assassination, i.e. extra-judicial execution).
Anti-Occupation Demonstration, London « Tomorrow, what?
Jamie, I just visited Dr Dawg’s blog. He had an interchange with Horowitz re Dr. Finkelstein’s ordeal. I thought it might interest you.
Cheers for that – an excellent exchange, exposing Horowitz’ hypocrisy and self-serving claims about “freedom of speech”. The AAUP document the blogger linked to was v. interesting, describing the “increasing tendency” to base tenure decisions on ‘collegiality’ as “highly unfortunate”. Furthermore, it states, including “collegiality” as a separate criterion for evaluation “holds the potential of chilling faculty debate and discussion” and would likely “cast a pall of stale uniformity” over academia. The Finkelstein case has just proved the AAUP correct.