The good doctor
(In response to Hayley Magerman’s Oct. 11 letter to the editor “ASU Guest List.”)
Hearing news of Norman G. Finkelstein’s visit to ASU is cause for celebration! Finally, an academic who so firmly believes in what he preaches that he’s willing to sacrifice his career. It would behoove readers to look up his denial of tenure at DePaul University, despite being highly qualified to teach — Dr. Finkelstein received his doctorate in political theory from Princeton University.
The personality of Norman G. Finkelstein is one that can best be described as polarizing. How is it that a son of Holocaust survivors came to be of Israel’s staunchest critics? How is it that a Jewish-American scholar is banned from setting foot in Israel for 10 years? What is it about him that Zionist supporters find so threatening? These are all questions I hope to answer by attending his talk on Tuesday.
It goes to show that we tend to abhor what we fear and misunderstand. I hope the writer of the letter reconsiders her prejudices against Finkelstein.
Let me quote Dr. Finkelstein directly, because the writer of the letter that unjustifiably slanders him refused to do so, “Every single member of my family on both sides was exterminated. Both of my parents were in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. And it is precisely and exactly because of the lessons my parents taught me and my two siblings that I will not be silent when Israel commits its crimes against the Palestinians.”
I want to personally thank those who are arranging his visit to ASU. We need more academic heroes like Dr. Finkelstein to stand up for human rights and justice, despite the manipulative power of their opposition.
Nahid Hiermandi
Undergraduate
Roll call
(In response to Hayley Magerman’s Oct. 11 letter to the editor “ASU Guest List.”)
Haley Magerman's letter falls into the old pattern of making all kinds of accusations against critics of Israel.
Of course, the dark humor of calling Norman Finkelstein, who happens to be Jewish and a son of Holocaust survivors, an anti-Semite is not lost on the educated reader. All the same, I too genuinely wish that Israel's gross violations of human rights were mere fabrications of disturbed individuals.
Sadly, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and all other major human rights organizations issue documented reports to the contrary on a regular basis.
I invite Haley and all other ASU students to join us at Dr. Finkelstein's talk on Tuesday and to have the courage to challenge, not all the inhumanities occurring on the planet, but rather, our own dearly held views of what goes on around it.
Foruhar Shiva
Reader
