Jerry Haber's post on Norman Finkelstein's deportation is great (as LeaNder has noted). He writes as a progressive Zionist. But lovers of learning should be appalled by the Finkelstein rebuke. He's an intellectual. They would seem to be afraid that he will go into the Archives and learn more secrets about the expulsion of the Arabs in '48. Even more serious is Haber's report that Breaking the Silence has been barred from giving more tours of Hebron. So I have been on a historic tour, that is no more? This is a tragic sign that Israel is shutting down its ability to hear criticism of its actions, not just to hear but to allow others to hear.
The rest of this post got eliminated technically, but I noted that Richard Silverstein on his blog has smart thinking on this too, and Rupa Shah, of Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace, also. I will try to provide their comments later, when I've stopped swearing at the computer for removing them!
OK:
Here's what Rupa Shah said, responding to this video of Norman G. saying on July 29, 2006 during the Lebanon war that "we are all Hizbullah" today (and comparing the Hizbullah's fight against the Israelis to the fight of the Red Army against the invading Germans in WW2 (hard for me to swaller)). Anyway, Rupa, a retired physician with the Arab-Jewish partnership:
On September 11, 2001, the whole world said, "We are all Americans". They were showing their
solidarity with American people. Prof Finkelstein, by declaring we are
all Hizbullas, he was not celebrating killing of Isarelis. He was
defending the right of Hizbulla to defend their country which was almost
destroyed for abduction of two Israeli soldiers. And the world watched
in horror while Israel pounded the country and the world demanded cease fire and it came too
late. In the video, prof Finklestein demands TRUTH and JUSTICE and NO
ONE can be against it.
And here is Richard Silverstein:
The idea that Norman Finkelstein was imprisoned by the Shin Bet is
an outrage. Even if you disagree with Finkelstein’s views on Hezbollah
and think that Finkelstein is an intellectual provocateur, he is a
respected academic with a large international audience. In banning him,
Israel has made itself look petty, small and mean.
In an exchange of e-mails with fellow progressives I was shocked to
discover that several people I thought would respond positively on this
issue essentially said: “Finkelstein can go to hell for all I care.” I
can understand why they don’t like Finkelstein. He is prickly person
who tends to argue his case in extreme terms. In the passion of his
argument, he gets carried away and overstates his case.
But the amount of misinformation forwarded even by Jewish progressives about Finkelstein was astonishing.
