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Friday Dec 12 at 20:00 GMT on AlJazeera: Head to Head – Mehdi Hasan challenges Norman Finkelstein
December 10, 2014
In Blog Events News
A Reader’s comment:
The Head to Head show on Al Jazeera English always provides superb tv, at least for those who prefer programs that are both informative and challenging. Mehdi Hasan is one tough anchor, always well prepared and more than able to give his guests a real grilling. They have to be able not only to face him, but also a panel of experts and questions from an opinionated audience. Fascinating debates often ensue.
In the next program, renowned scholar, author and activist Norman Finkelstein will be the special guest who has to face the gauntlet. Anyone who has watched one or two of his debates on YouTube will know that Finkelstein is just about the toughest, best prepared opponent you can meet in a debate. Someone with, it seems, a photographic memory. [If you should venture to quote from a book of which you are the author and you would e. g. refer to “chapter 7 of my book, page 144”, chances are that Finkelstein will interrupt and say, “No, no – that quote comes from page 152 of your book”. And he would most probably be correct.] He is also a controversial figure. On the one hand he is a fierce critic of the Zionist regime in Israel and [a. o.] what he calls “the Holocaust industry”. He probably always is very near the top of the list of those blacklisted as “self-hating Jews” by right-wing Israelis. On the other hand, he opposes the BDS movement and still seems to prefer the outdated option of a two-state solution, for which reason he is sometimes labelled a liberal Jew – which means he is seen to be left-wing, but not left-wing enough.
This should be something special.
Time to boycott Israel?
Author and activist Norman Finkelstein discusses whether the two-state solution can solve the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The direct link to the episode is http://aje.me/1uAyWYv
“Prospects have never been better for settling the Israel-Palestine conflict,” argues Norman Finkelstein, the controversial scholar and author of The Holocaust Industry. But after more violence, yet another round of failed talks and 20 years of Israeli land annexation, is the two-state solution really still an option?In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Norman Finkelstein on his proposal for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict, and explores whether he has changed his tone on some of his more incendiary criticism of Israel.Once described as an ‘American Radical’, Finkelstein has also been branded by some a liberal Zionist, for his opposition to the one-state solution and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which he vehemently describes as “a cult.”But does the BDS movement violate international law, and does it really aim to dismantle the Israeli state?Joining the discussion are Salma Karmi-Ayyoub, a leading Palestinian activist and human rights lawyer in London; Jeff Halper, the director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions in Jerusalem; and Oliver Kamm, a writer and journalist at The Times and The Jewish Chronicle newspapers, and outspoken supporter of Israel.
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