May 9, 2006
In News
Editor’s note: See also pre and post-talk articles, note on ACLU observers, reader letters and graphics related to the Santa Cruz event.
By Kathleen Eschen-Pipes
Denunciation of the Resource Center for Nonviolence, especially its Middle East Program, is nothing new in Santa Cruz. A handful of local Zionist hardliners frequently protest at RCNV events and write letters to the local paper denouncing it. For example, at a recent showing of the movie, “The Concrete Curtain,” about a dozen protesters tried to convince passers-by that the film – which they had not seen and refused to see – promoted terrorism. Those who saw it found that it addressed the effects of the Wall’s construction on the lives of ordinary Palestinians – tearing up the olive grove of one family and separating a family whose mother was from East Jerusalem and father was from the West Bank.
What was different in reaction to the Norman Finkelstein event, was that a couple of these hardliners were joined in their denunciation by every rabbi in town. In the weeks preceding Finkelstein’s talk in Santa Cruz, local Jewish leaders objected to his appearance in town and to the RCNV’s sponsorship of it. Some even went so far as to tell the RCNV that there was not possibility of dialogue if it did not cancel the event. As the event drew nearer, the local leaders released statements to the media denouncing Finkelstein as a hate speaker, generating front page coverage and editorials in the local paper and interviews by the local NPR station. On the evening of Finkelstein’s talk, a group of about 150 protesters held a candlelight vigil outside the hall. Apparently, the protesters had been told that they should not bring signs or literature, that those would be provided. All the local rabbis along with some other local Jewish leaders signed the main piece of literature handed out, a flyer warning people away from Finkelstein. Over 350 people – many of them Jewish – undeterred by the protesters and their flyers, packed into the hall while event organizers scrambled to find extra chairs. Even before Finkelstein’s talk, some people who objected to his appearance had misrepresented him and his words in the paper: his criticism of specific leaders of national Jewish organizations were misapplied to all Jews or the Jewish community and his personal differences with major Jewish authors not only were distorted – by showing only one side of the mudslinging – but were used as a distraction from the content of his scholarship. Two of the rabbis even admitted on a local radio talk show that they had read little of his published works. They were objecting to a talk, whose title, “Israel and Palestine: Misusing Anti-Semitism, Abusing History”, clearly would relate to Finkelstein’s most recent book, “Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.” Not only had they not read this book, they said that they had seen only excerpts from one of his others. The event flyer showed not just which excerpts and statements had contributed to the rabbis’ judgements about Finkelstein, but what their sources for those excerpts were. On first glance, many quotes from the flyer could have been taken directly from Finkelstein’s writings and interviews; one blurb cites his website and three others cite one of his earlier books. On closer examination, this option seems unlikely. While it is possible to find a wide variety of articles, letters and links about Finkelstein on his site -good, bad and ugly- the trusted sources for the flyer’s cites originate on other sites: Some of them can be found as framed, or even directly quoted, on a page on Alan Dershowitz’s Harvard site by The Committee to Expose Norman Finkelstein’s Close Connection to Neo-Nazism, Holocaust Denial, and his “Big Lie” of an “International Jewish Conspiracy”: “The Norman Finkelstein Top Ten Lists.” Others appear to have been lifted from prepackaged hit-pieces from Stand With Us, a source for Israel hardline propaganda (some of which are also duplicated on Dershowitz’s site). Still others appear to be direct quotes from Dershowitz’s letters and statements about Finkelstein. Indeed, in the few instances in which the composer of the flyer appears to have gone directly to a Finkelstein source, the quotes are mis-cited, or mis-attributed.* In fact, the whole flyer is rife with errors. Interestingly, a flyer warning people away from a scholar who is critical of Alan Dershowitz, relies heavily on sources from Dershowitz’s own website. A flyer repudiating a scholar’s intemperate words about national leaders, draws from Dershowitz’s own language and phrasing about Finkelstein. A flyer purporting to expose a scholar whose most recent book details the flaws in Dershowitz’s scholarship, distorts quotes and mis-attributes their sources. Consequently, the flyer reads like talking points from Alan Dershowitz’s Cliff Notes: |
FLYER (SCJCUAH, 03.15.2006, p.1) | SECONDARY SOURCE | ACTUAL SOURCE | ||
Who is Norman Finkelstein?
Why we are here… Finkelstein’s extremist views make him a very popular figure in neo-Nazi circles |
{Not Surprisingly, Finkelstein‘s extremist anti-Israel views have made him a very popular figure in neo-Nazi circles (Stand With Us, N.d. [Flyer 2])} | |||
FLYER (CONTINUES):
…on “International Jewish Conspiracy” |
SECONDARY SOURCE(S):
{a self-proclaimed sequel to an earlier book that the New York Times described as ‘a novel variation on the anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’(Dershowitz, N.d. [Statement])}. {“[Finkelstein] combines an old-hat 1960’s view of Israel as the outpost of American imperialism with a novel variation on the anti-Semitic forgery, ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ which warned of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world…. [A] series of vague, undocumented and contradictory assertions…. There is something sad in this warping of intelligence, and in this perversion of moral indignation. There is also something indecent about it, something juvenile, self-righteous, arrogant and stupid.” Omer Bartov, A Tale of Two Holocausts,” New York Times, August 6, 2000, p.8 (The Committee, N.d. [Top Ten Lists II])}. |
ACTUAL SOURCE:
{Here he combines an old-hat 1960’s view of Israel as the outpost of American imperialism with a novel variation on the anti-Semitic forgery, ”The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which warned of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. Now, however, the Jewish conspiracy is intended to ”shake down” (his favorite phrase) such innocent entities as Swiss banks, German corporations and East European owners of looted Jewish property, all in order to consolidate Jewish power and influence without giving the real survivors of the genocide anything but empty rhetoric. (Bartov, 08.06.2000, [New York Times])}. |
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FLYER (CONTINUES):
Finkelstein has said, “All opinion-leaders, from the left to the right, are Jews….The Silence around my book in the US – if this is not a conspiracy, then what is?” (NRC Handlesbad [sic], August 5, 2000) |
SECONDARY SOURCE(S):
{10. …on Finkelstein’s “International Jewish Conspiracy” “All opinion-leaders, from the left to the right, are Jews…The Silence around my book in the US-if this is not a conspiracy, then what is one?” (NRC Handlesblad, August 5, 2000) (The Committee, N.d. [Top Ten Lists I])}. { …on an “International Jewish Conspiracy” “All opinion-leaders, from the left to the right, are Jews…The Silence around my book in the US-if this is not a conspiracy, then what is one?” |
ACTUAL SOURCE:
{Joden zijn invloedrijk. Ze nemen een belangrijke positie in de media in. Alle opiniebladen in de VS, van links tot rechts, zijn joods. [which is all I can decipher from the Dutch] (Blokker, 08.05.2000, [NRC Handlesblad])}. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
…on David Irving |
SECONDARY SOURCE(S):
{[This is the clearest instance of reliance upon a secondary source, not only in wording of the header and mode of citation, but in quotation of this source – with the minor addition, “in Nazi germany” – which has little content from the original sources] 9. …on David Irving David Irving, the notorious Holocaust denier who claims there were no gas chambers[ ] and that Hitler was “the Jews’ greatest friend,” is “a good historian” who has “made an ‘indispensable’ contribution to our knowledge of World War II.” (Anne Applebaum, “The battle for the Holocaust Legacy,” Sunday Telegraph, July 16, 2000; and “The Holocaust Industry,” p. 71)”(The Committee, N.d. [Top Ten Lists I])}. { … on Holocaust denier David Irving David Irving, the notorious Holocaust denier who claims there were no gas chambers[ ] and that Hitler was “the Jews’ greatest friend,” is “a good historian” who has “made an ‘indispensable’ contribution to our knowledge of World War II.” – Anne Applebaum, “The battle for the Holocaust Legacy,” Sunday Telegraph, July 16, 2000; and “The Holocaust Industry,” p. 71 (Stand With Us, N.d. [Flyer 4])} |
ACTUAL SOURCE:
{[Only reference to David Irving in Sunday Telegraph article:] In it, Finkelstein argues not only that the Washington Holocaust museum is inappropriate, but that the majority of people who now claim to be Holocaust survivors are fakes; that the American Jewish institutions dedicated to squeezing compensation from European governments and industries are keeping most of the money for themselves; that David Irving is a nauseating man but a good historian; that the insistence on the Holocaust’s uniqueness has suppressed rational discussion of the history of the events themselves.(Applebaum, 07.16.2000, [Sunday Telegraph])}. UNATTRIBUTED SOURCE: {But Irving, notorious as an admirer of Hitler and sympathizer with German national socialism, has nevertheless, as Gordon Craig points out, made an “indispensable” contribution to our knowledge of World War II. (Finkelstein, 2003, [The Holocaust Industry], p. 71)}. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
“We dare not disregard … [David Irving’s] views.” (Norman Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry, p 72) |
* ACTUAL SOURCE:
{[Eschewing reference to the quote about Irving in the body of p.71, the flyer’s redactor mined the footnotes of pp71-2, attributing Craig’s words to Finkelstein:] |
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FLYER (CONT.):
…on Hezbollah Terrorist Organization “The honorable thing now is to show solidarity with Hezbollah as the US and Israel target it for liquidation. Indeed, looking back my chief regret is that I wasn’t even more forceful in publicly defending Hezbollah against terrorist intimidation and attack.” (Norman Finkelstein, “A Reply to Michael Young”) |
SECONDARY SOURCE(S):
{3. …on Hezbollah[ ] “[T]he honorable thing now is to show solidarity with Hezbollah as the US and Israel target it for liquidation. Indeed, looking back my chief regret is that I wasn’t even more forceful in publicly defending Hezbollah against terrorist intimidation and attack.” (Norman Finkelstein, “A Reply to Michael Young”) (The Committee, N.d. [Top Ten Lists I])}. {…on the terrorist group Hezbollah[ ] “The honorable thing now is to show solidarity with Hezbollah as the US and Israel target it for liquidation. Indeed, looking back my chief regret is that I wasn’t even more forceful in publicly defending Hezbollah against terrorist intimidation and attack.” |
ACTUAL SOURCE:
{I did make a point of publicly honoring the heroic resistance of Hezbollah to foreign occupation. Why not? The Communist parties throughout Europe organized the downtrodden and led the resistance to Nazi occupation. Probably, I wouldn’t have fared very well under Communists, just as I probably wouldn’t very well under Hezbollah . Their historic contributions are, nonetheless, undeniable. The shock and shame are that Young apparently doesn’t respect the tortures Hezbollah (and others) endured at Khiam to liberate Lebanon. Hezbollah asked to interview me on its television station. Initially I hesitated, not from principle, however, but from cowardice. If I’m willing to appear on CNN – the main propaganda organ for America’s terrorist wars – why shouldn’t I appear on al-Manar? After finally agreeing I was equally forthright during the interview in my criticism and my support of Hezbollah. Even if al-Manar ultimately decides not to air the full interview, it bears notice that Hezbollah accorded me the maximum respect – which is much more than I can say for the AUB administration.[Michael Young’s original article in Beirut’s Daily Star was a critique of Norman Finkelstein’s lecture which was delivered in another venue after cancellation by the American University in Beirut] To paraphrase Juvenal: Who will enlighten the enlighteners? To my thinking the honorable thing now is to show solidarity with Hezbollah as the US and Israel target it for liquidation. Indeed, looking back my chief regret is that I wasn’t even more forceful in publicly defending Hezbollah against terrorist intimidation and attack. (Finkelstein, N.d. [A Reply to Michael Young])}. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
…on Holocaust Minimization “If everyone who claims to be a holocaust survivor is one…then who did Hitler kill?” (Norman Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry, p. 81) |
SECONDARY SOURCE:
{6. …on Holocaust [ ] Survivors |
SOURCE:
{The term “Holocaust Survivor” originally designated those who suffered the unique trauma of the Jewish ghettos, concentration camps and slave labor camps, often in sequence. The figure for these Holocaust survivors at war’s end is generally put at some 100,000. The number of living survivors cannot be more than a quarter of this figure now. Because enduring the camps became a crown of martyrdom, many Jews who spent the war elsewhere represented themselves as camp survivors. Another strong motive behind this misrepresentation, was material. The postwar German government provided compensation to Jews who had been in ghettos or camps. Many Jews fabricated their pasts to meet this eligibility requirement. “If everyone who claims to be a survivor actually is one,” my mother [a Nazi holocaust survivor] used to exclaim, “[ ] who did Hitler kill?” ( Finkelstein, 2003, [The Holocaust Industry] p.81) }. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
Finkelstein opposes using holocaust compensation funds for holocaust education, museums and memorials, preferring to reduce the total compensation and deny any reparations to Jewish institutions. (Lessons of Holocaust Compensation, normanfinkelstein.com) |
* NON-SOURCE:
{[Interestingly, the article “Lessons of Holocaust Compensation” contains nothing on holocaust education, museums and memorials, unless you count:] Elsewhere I have documented that Jewish organizations misappropriated much of the monies earmarked for the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. (Finkelstein, 2001 [Lessons])}. |
* ACTUAL SOURCE(S):
[These terms do appear in two other articles on normanfinkelstein.com, “Reflections on Finkelstein” and “Spending restitution money pits survivors against groups”-which appears on a page on Finkelstein’s site titled, “Survivors Protest Holocaust Industry Shakedown”; however, for some reason the flyer did not reference either article:] It is well known that a public, international Holocaust discourse began in the seventies, gathered strength in the next decade, reached a staggeringly large audience in the mid-nineties and, contrary to many predictions, has continued to stimulate huge interest since then. It was Abba Eban who famously commented that ‘There’s no business like Shoah business’, and we cannot ignore the ‘commercialization’ of the Holocaust and much of what is being done in its name.For example, much wider scrutiny and consideration should be given to the current international appetite for Holocaust museums, memorials and education. (Klinger, 2000 [Reflections on Finkelstein])}. {On Sept. 11, the World Jewish Congress will formally announce the creation of a foundation tentatively named the Foundation for the Jewish People that will determine the spending priorities. “Yes, money should be spent for Jewish education and culture, but that is the obligation of klal Yisrael of all Jews,” said Roman Kent, a survivor who serves as chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and vice president of the Claims Conference. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
“Finkelstein says…that most ‘survivors’ are bogus.” (Guardian, July 12, 2000) |
SECONDARY SOURCE(S):
{6. …on Holocaust survivors [A.] “Finkelstein says…that most ‘survivors’ are bogus.” (Guardian, Wednesday July 12, 2000) (The Committee, N.d. [Top Ten Lists I])}. {“Finkelstein says…that most ‘survivors’ are bogus.” |
ACTUAL SOURCE:
{Norman Finkelstein has caused a storm on both sides of the Atlantic and it is not hard to see why: he says the Holocaust has been exploited to extort cash, that most ‘survivors’ are bogus and that too much money is spent commemorating the Nazi genocide. In the first of two exclusive extracts, he argues that it’s time to shut down “the holocaust industry” (Anon., 07.12.2000, [Guardian teaser])}. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
Finkelstein says, “I am not exaggerating when I say that one out of three Jews you stop in the street in New York will claim to be a survivor.” (Sunday Times, London, June 11, 2000) |
SECONDARY SOURCE:
{[6B] “I am not exaggerating when I say that one out of three Jews you stop in the street in New York will claim to be a survivor.” (Sunday Times of London, June 11, 2000) (The Committee, N.d. [Top Ten Lists I])}. |
ACTUAL SOURCE:
{Finkelstein’s father never spoke of his experience, but his mother spoke of little else. Yet, he recalls, even she was disgusted at the rise of the Holocaust industry in America. There were, he says, only 60,000 Jewish survivors of the camps and 20,000 of those died in the first week after liberation. Yet in the 1960s and 1970s many of his parents’ friends started claiming to be survivors. Soon everybody was a victim of the great martyrdom. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that one out of three Jews you stop in the street in New York will claim to be a survivor. And, since 1993, the industry has been claiming that 10,000 survivors have been dying every month. That is completely impossible. It would mean that there were 8m survivors in 1945, but there were only 7m Jews in German-occupied Europe before the war.” (Appleyard, 06.11.2000, [Sunday Times])}. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
Finkelstein accuses Jewish leaders of being “…Jew liars who [ ] huckster their dead.” (Norman Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry, p.127) |
* ACTUAL SOURCE:
{[Google revealed no prior source that removed Finkelstein’s quotes from “Jew liars”:] As the Holocaust industry plays with numbers to boost its compensation claims, anti-Semites gleefully mock the ” Jew liars ” who even ” huckster ” their dead. In juggling these numbers the Holocaust industry, however unintentionally, whitewashes Nazism. . . . if 135,000 former Jewish slave laborers are still alive today, some 600,000 must have survived the war. That’s at least a half-million more than standard estimates. . . . Not only does the “6 million” figure become more untenable but the numbers of the Holocaust industry are rapidly approaching those of Holocaust deniers. (Finkelstein, 2003, [The Holocaust Industry], p. 127) }. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
…on being a favorite of neo-Nazis in Germany “At first I was very puzzled by it,” says Finkelstein, “and then I realized I wasn’t responsible for it.” (Ha’aretz, March 30, 2001 |
SECONDARY SOURCE (?):
[Googling does not reveal a source for the flyer’s quote as clipped] |
ACTUAL SOURCE:
{How does it feel for him to be a favorite of the radical right in Germany? “At first I was very puzzled by it,” says Finkelstein, “and then I realized I wasn’t responsible for it. It was the actions of the Jewish establishment. You can’t accuse me of encouraging anti-Semitism. I am only the messenger who reports on the actions of the Jewish establishment, actions that are encouraging anti-Semitism.” (Sheleg, 03.30.2001 [Ha’aretz])}. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
Santa Cruz Jewish Community United Against Hate
For Further Information: [XXX-XXXX]
FLYER (SCJCUAH, 03.15.2006, p.2) | SECONDARY SOURCE | ACTUAL SOURCE | ||
NO TO HATE
Nonviolence conjures up the image of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. But who is Norman Finkelstein, invited into our community by the Resource Center for Nonviolence? He’s an inflammatory propagandist who is widely quoted by Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis. He states that most Holocaust survivors are “bogus.” |
SECONDARY [OR TERTIARY?] SOURCE:
{[“Bogus” is clearly the paraphrase of the editor in the original teaser from the Guardian. The Top Ten List and Stand With Us flyer, while compressing the quotation, leave the punctuation as it was in the Guardian. The only prior text online that puts “bogus” in quotes is directly from Dershowitz:] he said that most “survivors” are “bogus” and have “fabricated their pasts.” (Dershowitz, 04.13.04 [Letter to New Press])}. SECONDARY SOURCE(S): {6. …on Holocaust survivors {“Finkelstein says…that most ‘survivors’ are bogus.” |
{Norman Finkelstein has caused a storm on both sides of the Atlantic and it is not hard to see why: he says the Holocaust has been exploited to extort cash, that most “survivors” are bogus and that too much money is spent commemorating the Nazi genocide. In the first of two exclusive extracts, he argues that it’s time to shut down “the holocaust industry” (Anon., 07.12.2000, [Guardian teaser])} | ||
FLYER (CONT.):
He has called Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel a “liar” and “a clown.” |
SECONDARY [OR TERTIARY?] SOURCE:
{[The Top Ten Lists do contain Finkelstein’s words about Wiesel: “clown” in part I and “liar” in part IV. The only prior online text combining “a liar and a clown” to describe Wiesel – aside from an obscure comment by a blogger in 2003 (MBRL, [Fark.com]) – is directly from Dershowitz:] SECONDARY SOURCE: {10. …on Elie Wiesel “Elie Wiesel [is] resident clown of the Holocaust circus.” (Irish Times, “‘I Won’t Lie Down and Take the Insults.'”) (The Committee, N.d. [Top Ten Lists [I])}. {The Lie: Finkelstein has called Elie Wiesel a “liar” because “[i]n his memoir Wiesel had written that ‘I read The Critique of Pure Reason-don’t laugh!-in Yiddish.” Finkelstein claims that The Critique of Pure Reason was never translated into Yiddish.” (The Committee, N.d. [Top Ten Lists IV])}. |
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FLYER (CONT.)
He has urged support of the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Finkelstein is often praised by far right revisionists of the Third Reich, such as Hitler- admiring historian, David Irving. |
SECONDARY SOURCE:
{“[Finkelstein] is often praised by far Right revisionists of the Third Reich, such as Hitler-admiring historian David Irving.” |
ACTUAL SOURCE:
{Professor Norman Finkelstein is one of a dying breed of American mavericks that relentlessly defies any attempt at easy categorization. He is the son of Holocaust survivors but an unremitting critic of Holocaust reparation claims; a Jew but is a life-long anti Zionist; and though very much a Leftist, he is often praised by far Right revisionists of the Third Reich, such as Hitler-admiring historian David Irving. He initially made his name by revealing Joan Peter’s massively successful From Time Immemorial (a book heavily promoted by the Israeli lobby, that claimed there were no native Arabs before Zionist immigration into Palestine), as a colossal fraud, and for 10 years he was a Professor of Political Science at New York University. (Atapattu, 12.13.2001, [Counterpunch])}. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
The Resource Center’s sponsorship of this speaker betrays its mission, and shows that it has strayed from the course of creating dialogue and mutual understanding. As we know from the rise of anti-Semitism in other parts of the world, hate speech does lead to violence. Historian Peter Novick, who [sic] Finkelstein claims as a mentor, discredits his book The Holocaust Industry, saying that “It is the hate campaign of a zealot”, “distorts the facts”, and “displays a paranoid belief” in a global Jewish conspiracy. |
SECONDARY SOURCE:
{It is the “Hate Campaign of a Zealot.” It distorts the facts and “displays a paranoid belief in some sort of global conspiracy of the Jewish elites in the U.S.” |
ACTUAL SOURCE:
{Criticism about people exploiting the Holocaust for purposes of personal publicity or monetary gain has been voiced for years, as has the somewhat coarse statement (which Finkelstein attributes to Abba Eban) that “there’s no business like Shoah business.” Nor is there anything new about how the Holocaust has taken on a disproportionate role in shaping the identity and agenda of the American Jewish establishment. Finkelstein’s book was published only a year after Jewish-American historian Peter Novick’s “The Holocaust in American Life,” in which Novick aired some similar accusations, but his book was received rather warmly, even by representatives of the Jewish establishment. In the introduction to his book, Norman Finkelstein mentions Novick as having influenced his own writings. But Novick is not at all pleased to be on the receiving end of Finkelstein’s bear hug. He wrote an article about Finkelstein’s book for the German newspaper Die Welt, which was entitled “Hate Campaign of a Zealot.” In an interview with a Polish newspaper, Novick stated that Finkelstein is distorting the facts, was anti-Zionist and “displays a paranoid belief in some sort of global conspiracy of the Jewish elites in the U.S.” (Sheleg, 03.30.2001 [Ha’aretz])}. |
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FLYER (CONT.):
As leaders of the entire spectrum of the organized Jewish community in Santa Cruz, we condemn the Resource Center’s sponsorship of this event. For some time now, we have wondered why the Resource Center so obsessively singles out Israel while so many other areas of the world, which deserve equal if not greater attention, go virtually ignored. If the Resource Center cannot act respectfully toward the Jewish community in Santa Cruz, how can it be a force for nonviolent change in the Middle East? Let’s keep HATE and VIOLENCE out of our community. [eighteen signatories and affiliations] |
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Eighteen Local Jewish leaders, half of them rabbis, signed this shoddy piece of work. In signing, religious scholars bypassed the plain meaning of an author’s words in a passage (“Rightly dismissing Irving’s claims on the Nazi holocaust as ‘obtuse and quickly discredited'”) and attributed a mangled quote from an author’s source [Gordon Craig] to the author (“We dare not disregard …[David Irving’s] views”). In signing, spiritual guides sent people to the wrong source (Lessons of Holocaust Compensation), when the correct information was at another source (whether titled “Reflections on Finkelstein,” “Spending restitution money pits survivors against groups”or “Survivors Protest Holocaust Industry Shakedown”). In signing, local Jewish leaders assigned the words of Jew-haters (“…anti-Semites gleefully mock the ‘Jew liars’ who…”) to a Jew who has challenged national Jewish leaders (“Finkelstein accuses Jewish leaders of being ‘…Jew liars who…'”). Beyond these glaring misrepresentations, in signing, interpreters of religious texts selected quotes – already stripped of context by secondhand sources – to piece together an depiction of Norman Finkelstein as an ally of anti-Semites (terrorists, neo-Nazis, conspiracy theorists and Holocaust deniers or minimizers) and “an inflammatory propagandist,” who should not be given a platform in our community because “hate speech does lead to violence.”
Of course, the flyer gives no indication whether its preparation was a group project or an assignment undertaken by one or two members of the group. It gives no hint whether its secondary sources are ungooglable; perhaps translations of NRC Handlesblad’s back issues are available in our local library. Certainly, clergy encounter a variety of pressures – including time constraints – in any setting. In this instance, taking shortcuts, skipping the research, trusting in unchecked cliff notes or colleagues, has contributed not only to poor scholarship, but to poor leadership. Even when the typist makes errors only in spelling and footnotes, in submitting a group project, everyone takes equal responsibility and makes the same grade. The citizens of Santa Cruz, certainly the 150 people who joined in the candlelight vigil for whom the flyer purports to speak, deserve better from their local Jewish leaders than this distorted and misleading hit-piece on Norman Finkelstein and the Resource Center for Nonviolence. Kathleen Eschen-Pipes is a member of the Palestine Israel Action Committee, one of the co-sponsors of Norman Finkelstein’s talk in Santa Cruz on March 15, 2006. SOURCES Applebaum, A. (07.16.2000) The battle for the Holocaust legacy. The Sunday Telegraph. Available from: http://www.anneapplebaum.com/other/2000/07_16_tel_holocaust.html [Accessed: 04.18.2006] (Applebaum, 07.16.2000, [Sunday Telegraph]) Appleyard, B. (06.11.2000) Stop, in the Name of the Holocaust. News Review, Sunday Times, Available by subscription from: “http://www.newsint-archive.co.ukpages/S.asp?pubsel=SNT… [Accessed: 04.19.2006] (Appleyard, 06.11.2000, [Sunday Times]) Anon. (07.12.2000). The Business of Death. Guardian [teaser]. Available from: http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,342879,00.html also from: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=3&ar=40 (Anon., 07.12.2000, [Guardian teaser]) Anon. (No date). Norman Finkelstein. Wikipedia [online], Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Finkelstein [Accessed: 05.01.2006], (Anon., N.d., [Wikipedia]) Atapattu, D. (12.13.2001). A Conversation with Professor Norman Finkelstein: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. Counterpunch. Available from:http://www.counterpunch.org/finkelstein1.html http://www.counterpunch.org/finkelstein1.html also from: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=3&ar=46 [Accessed: 04.18.2006] (Atapattu, 12.13.2001, [Counterpunch]) Bartov, O. (08.06.2000). A Tale of Two Holocausts. New York Times. Available from: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E1DF163DF935A3575BC0A9669C8B63 [Accessed: 04.18.06] (Bartov, 08.06.2000, [New York Times]) Blokker, B. (08.05.2000) Joden zijn immuun voor elke vorm van kritiek. NRC Handlesblad. http://www.nrc.nl/W2/Nieuws/2000/08/05/Vp/z.html (Blokker, 08.05.2000, [NRC Handlesblad]) The Committee to Expose Norman Finkelstein’s Close Connections to Neo-Nazism, Holocaust Denial, and His “Big Lie” of an “International Jewish Conspiracy.” (no date). The Marketplace of Ideas: Know Who You Are Listening To or Reading: The Norman Finkelstein Top Ten Lists: [ I.] “The 10 Nuttiest Things Finkelstein Has Said,” [II.] “The 10 Most Devastating Things People have Said About Finkelstein,”[ III.] “The 10 Most Despicable Things Finkelstein Has Said,” [IV.] “The 10 Biggest Lies Finkelstein Has Been Caught Telling” [online] Available from: http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/dershowitz/currentlist.html also from: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=12[accessed on 04.18.2006] (The Committee, N.d. [Top Ten Lists I-IV]) Dershowitz, A. (No date). Statement of Alan M. Dershowitz. [online] Available from: http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/dershowitz/statement.html also from: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=48 [Accessed:04.18.2006] (Dershowitz, N.d. [Statement]) Dershowitz, A. (04.13.2004). Letter to New Press, first publisher for “Beyond Chutzpah”: Available from: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=126 [Accessed on: 04.18.2006] (Dershowitz, 04.13.04 [Letter to New Press]) Finkelstein, N. (2003). The Holocaust Industry. 2nd edition. New York: Verso. (Finkelstein, 2003 [The Holocaust Industry]) Finkelstein, N. (No date). A Reply to Michael Young. [Norman Finkelstein’s response to Young, M. (12/15/2001) Listening to Norman Finkelstein. Daily Star (Beirut)] Available from: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=4&ar=15 [Accessed: 04.18.2006] (Finkelstein, N.d. [A Reply to Michael Young]) Finkelstein, N. (2001) Lessons of Holocaust Compensation. In Naseer Aruri (ed), Palestinian Refugees and their Right of Return. London: Pluto Press. Available from: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=3&ar=47 [Accessed: 04.18.2006] (Finkelstein, 2001 [Lessons]) Jordan, M. (08.29.2000) “Spending restitution money pits survivors against groups” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Available on page, “Survivors Protest Holocaust Industry Shakedown”: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=3&ar=201 [Accessed: 04.18.2006] (Jordan, 08.29.2000 [Survivors] ) Klinger, K. (Autumn, 2000). Reflections on Finkelstein. Jewish Quarterly. Available from: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=3&ar=16 [Accessed: 04.18.2006] (Klinger, 2000 [Reflections on Finkelstein]) MagnificentBastardRL, 10.08.2003. Comment on “Clark violates election law, is endorsed by Psi Corps” on fark.com [online] available from: http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=677608, [Accessed: 04.24.2006] (MBRL, 10.08.2003, [fark.com]) Santa Cruz Jewish Community United Against Hate. (03.15.2006). Norman Finkelstein Event Flyer. Flyer p.2 is available on p.23 from: www.metropdf.com/0611_MZ_1_front.pdf (SCJCUAH, 03.15.2006, [Flyer]) Sheleg, Y. (03.30.2001) The Finkelstein Polemic. Ha’aretz Magazine. Available from: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=3&ar=11 [Accessed: 04.18.2006] (Sheleg, 03.30.2001 [Ha’aretz]) Stand With Us. (No date). Norman Finkelstein Defends Extremist Ideology. Available from: http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20050307-27/flyers/flyer_1.pdf, [Accessed: 04.18.2006] (Stand With Us, N.d. [Flyer 1]) Stand With Us. (No date). Norman Finkelstein, Your Academic Credibility is in Doubt. Available from: http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20050307-27/flyers/flyer_2.pdf, [Accessed: 04.18.2006] (Stand With Us, N.d. [Flyer 2]) Stand With Us. (No date). Academics question Norman Finkelstein’s Scholarship. Available from: http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20050307-27/flyers/flyer_3.pdf [Accessed:04.18.2006] (Stand With Us, N.d. [Flyer 3]) Stand With Us. (No date). Norman Finkelstein is Known for his Extremist Viewpoints. Available from: http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20050307-27/flyers/flyer_4.pdf [Accessed: 04.18.2006] (Stand With Us, N.d. [Flyer 4]) |