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Impeccable Scholarship Costs Norman Finkelstein Tenure at DePaul!
An impressive record of scholarship was not enough to ensure tenure for DePaul University Professor Norman Finkelstein. An unprecedented yet predictable campaign of hate and slander waged by Israel Inc., commandeered by noted Harvard plagiarist, strident enemy of human rights, and America's leading apologist for Israeli state terrorism, Alan Dershowitz was successful in the denial of tenure to Norman.
Norman Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul University for one primary reason - his impeccable scholarship. While it's true that other scholars who defy the "conventional wisdom" on issues of importance suffer criticism and personal attack, the attack on Finkelstein is unprecedented, in several ways. Finkelstein, by all objective accounts, is a shoe-in for tenure but he dared to accurately and cohesively dismantle, question and expose the motives and methods undertaken by members of Israel Inc., like Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz, who have as their primary life objective - working on behalf of The State of Israel.
Perhaps, the leading American apologist for Israeli state terrorism and American terrorist foreign policy (in so much as that foreign policy benefits Israel) is Dershowitz, a truly fanatical zealot who among other dubious distinctions, is a well-documented plagiarist and enemy of human rights, irrespective of his reflexive tantrums and pronouncements.
Dershowitz commandeered the campaign to negatively influence Finkelstein's bid for tenure, consisting of vitriolic op-ed pieces and communication with DePaul officials, seems to have been effective. Dershowitz has long been a key element of the pro-Israel chorus in America, so it was no surprise that Israel Inc. organs like the ADL "applaud the University for its actions," while slightly more attenuated Israel Inc. organs, like Campus Watch, were sufficiently pleased to publish the ADL's vision of “continuing the close relationship between DePaul and the Jewish community,” now enhanced with the denial of tenure to the Jewish Finkelstein, I suppose.
The measure of "legitimacy" for American politicians has long been their record in service of Israel Inc. aims, now it seems that criteria is being implemented in determining tenure for university professors, at least in DePaul’s Political Science department, and much to the detriment of the student body.
We can see at least two positive outcomes from this cowardly appeasement of Dershowitz as part of Israel Inc. The first is that Finkelstein, whose family suffered directly at the hands of the Nazi's, will enter the ever-growing pool of "anti-Semites" as pronounced by Israel Inc. Finkelstein joins other very notable, learned, and thus dangerous thinkers, who incidentally, include many Jews and other Semites, like: Noam Chomsky, Uri Avnery, Amira Hass, Ilan Pappe, Dr. Israel Shak, Ed Said, Tariq Ali, Ed Herman, Howard Zinn, Jonathan Cook, Michael Albert, Keith Harmon-Snow, Bill & Kathy Christison, Pres. Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Alex Odeh, Rep. Paul Findley, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Rep. Pete McCloskey, Sen. J. William Fulbright, Norman Solomon, Sam Husseini, Gary Leupp, Ralph Nader, Jeffrey St. Clair, Joshua Frank, Michael J. Smith, John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, Robert Fisk, Ali Abunimah, John Walsh, William Blum, Alexander Cockburn, Saul Landau, Lenni Brenner, Patrick Cockburn, Gideon Levy, Jennifer Lowenstein, Michael Neumann, you get the idea...anyone, anywhere, that in anyway opposes what is "good" for Israel is an "anti-Semite." In tightening their noose on speech and thought, Israel Inc. continues to expand the pool of "anti-Semites" such that soon, no one but themselves remain, exposing their agenda and hypocrisy, until it becomes indefensible.
The second positive outcome and about the best thing that can be said about the likes of Dershowitz, is that, ironically, his sordid track record and on-going campaign against Finkelstein thoroughly bolsters many of the arguments and premises that underlie Finkelstein's accurate analysis of him, as a despicable and transparent fraud, who reacts to critical exposure of himself as a member of Israel Inc. by launching campaigns of deceptive reprisal.
Noam Chomsky said it succinctly, when he observed "just how far Alan Dershowitz will go in his efforts to conceal the fact that Norman Finkelstein exposed him as a vulgar and fraudulent apologist for Israeli human rights violations -carefully, judiciously, with extensive documentation." And now we know.
Greg A.
Perhaps, the leading American apologist for Israeli state terrorism and American terrorist foreign policy (in so much as that foreign policy benefits Israel) is Dershowitz, a truly fanatical zealot who among other dubious distinctions, is a well-documented plagiarist and enemy of human rights, irrespective of his reflexive tantrums and pronouncements.
Dershowitz commandeered the campaign to negatively influence Finkelstein's bid for tenure, consisting of vitriolic op-ed pieces and communication with DePaul officials, seems to have been effective. Dershowitz has long been a key element of the pro-Israel chorus in America, so it was no surprise that Israel Inc. organs like the ADL "applaud the University for its actions," while slightly more attenuated Israel Inc. organs, like Campus Watch, were sufficiently pleased to publish the ADL's vision of “continuing the close relationship between DePaul and the Jewish community,” now enhanced with the denial of tenure to the Jewish Finkelstein, I suppose.
The measure of "legitimacy" for American politicians has long been their record in service of Israel Inc. aims, now it seems that criteria is being implemented in determining tenure for university professors, at least in DePaul’s Political Science department, and much to the detriment of the student body.
We can see at least two positive outcomes from this cowardly appeasement of Dershowitz as part of Israel Inc. The first is that Finkelstein, whose family suffered directly at the hands of the Nazi's, will enter the ever-growing pool of "anti-Semites" as pronounced by Israel Inc. Finkelstein joins other very notable, learned, and thus dangerous thinkers, who incidentally, include many Jews and other Semites, like: Noam Chomsky, Uri Avnery, Amira Hass, Ilan Pappe, Dr. Israel Shak, Ed Said, Tariq Ali, Ed Herman, Howard Zinn, Jonathan Cook, Michael Albert, Keith Harmon-Snow, Bill & Kathy Christison, Pres. Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Alex Odeh, Rep. Paul Findley, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Rep. Pete McCloskey, Sen. J. William Fulbright, Norman Solomon, Sam Husseini, Gary Leupp, Ralph Nader, Jeffrey St. Clair, Joshua Frank, Michael J. Smith, John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, Robert Fisk, Ali Abunimah, John Walsh, William Blum, Alexander Cockburn, Saul Landau, Lenni Brenner, Patrick Cockburn, Gideon Levy, Jennifer Lowenstein, Michael Neumann, you get the idea...anyone, anywhere, that in anyway opposes what is "good" for Israel is an "anti-Semite." In tightening their noose on speech and thought, Israel Inc. continues to expand the pool of "anti-Semites" such that soon, no one but themselves remain, exposing their agenda and hypocrisy, until it becomes indefensible.
The second positive outcome and about the best thing that can be said about the likes of Dershowitz, is that, ironically, his sordid track record and on-going campaign against Finkelstein thoroughly bolsters many of the arguments and premises that underlie Finkelstein's accurate analysis of him, as a despicable and transparent fraud, who reacts to critical exposure of himself as a member of Israel Inc. by launching campaigns of deceptive reprisal.
Noam Chomsky said it succinctly, when he observed "just how far Alan Dershowitz will go in his efforts to conceal the fact that Norman Finkelstein exposed him as a vulgar and fraudulent apologist for Israeli human rights violations -carefully, judiciously, with extensive documentation." And now we know.
Greg A.
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Dear Indybay readers,
My name is Victor Lang I am a current student at DePaul University and media spokesperson for a large group of students who are in support of Dr. Norman Finkelstein's tenure bid. Though it should be noted that Dr. Finkelstein is not the only faculty who was denied tenure that has received controversial attention. Dr. Mehrene Larudee of the International Studies Program was denied also, despite being approved unanimously by both her department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She sat on a committee of faculty that supported Dr. FInkelstein. Unlike Dr. Finkelstein, who's denial of tenure letter from the President was several pages long, Dr. Larudee's was less than one page and was not descriptive at all. It is pretty obvious why she got denied - it was her support of Finkelstein and that it would've looked really bad if only he was denied.
Many of us students are personal supporters of Dr. Finkelstein, either we had classes with him, had read his books, or randomly see him walking around the dept with a steak that he cooked in his little oven he hides under his desk. Dr. Finkelstein is neither tactful nor politically correct (its just him trying to be funny in class) though according to the student reviews of teaching, Dr. Finkelstein has the highest scores in the entire Dept. of Political Science. I assure you its not beceause he's easy - he is definitly not - but his intensity in teaching the material accurately and without bias is inspiring. The students here love him and hate the administration for this injustice. A few weeks ago a group of students, including myself, met up to discuss the possibility of his denial of tenure. While highly publicized, no one actually believed that he would be denied (this included myself). Last friday, I was at work where I received an SMS from my girlfriend with the news that he was denied - literally, I felt a gagging sensation like I was going to vomit. Over the course of the weekend, a number of student leaders from organizations ranging from Model United Nations, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Campaign to End the Death Penalty mobilized their constituencies and held at sit-in at DePaul President Holtschneider's office. After questioning him we realized that he was unsympathetic and was doing the whole: "oh these spoiled little kids... let me appease them and nod a bit." In the end, to him and his staff DePaul is a business. Although at this meeting he told us he would allow us to stage a sit-in at his office for as long as it takes for us to prove our point, after two days he declared if we weren't out by 5 he would have us expelled from DePaul for disrupting business operations. He even sent the Chicago Police up to rush us out the door. Some professors who were with us in solidarity were notifed that they would not be protected by DePaul should they be arrested by Chicago police in this situation.
On Wednesday a few of us students were invited to a meeting of the Faculty Council where there were over 150 faculty questioning the Provost on the tenure procedure, and it was found by the faculty that on 7 points procedure was not followed correctly in the tenure decisions of the faculty in question. The Provost said very strongly that procedure was followed and that there would be no appeal because the right does not exist for faculty in cases of employment termination. The Faculty Council afterwards voted in favor of an appeal process for the two faculty. Yesterday, we were invited another faculty meeting, the Faculty Governance Council, which represents the College of LA&S. The room was packed with another 150 faculty that were scared for themselves. The question remained - if professors can be approved for tenure by their department and the college - in the case of Larudee, unanimously, but denied at the top levels, what job security is there for junior faculty except to censor their own work? The morale of junior faculty at DePaul is a bust. I have already spoken to some faculty that have decided not to send in some of their work for publication for fear that controversial submissions would lead to the denial of their own tenure. Furthermore, there have been talk of the American Association of University Professors censuring DePaul, and other individual universities are moving to boycott DePaul, which means publications and conferences held at those universities would deny all submissions from DePaul faculty.
Essentially, this is a crisis of academic freedom at DePaul. Students and faculty are outraged and concerned of what appears to be a purge in our ranks. The faculty are concerned of what this means for their own publications and bids for tenure. I myself feel hurt that the value of my degree has been tarnished by the actions of my university and I recommend that all parties boycott DePaul.
Thank you for your time, if you have any questions for us students, please visit http://www.finkelgate.com .
Sincerely
Victor Lang
My name is Victor Lang I am a current student at DePaul University and media spokesperson for a large group of students who are in support of Dr. Norman Finkelstein's tenure bid. Though it should be noted that Dr. Finkelstein is not the only faculty who was denied tenure that has received controversial attention. Dr. Mehrene Larudee of the International Studies Program was denied also, despite being approved unanimously by both her department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She sat on a committee of faculty that supported Dr. FInkelstein. Unlike Dr. Finkelstein, who's denial of tenure letter from the President was several pages long, Dr. Larudee's was less than one page and was not descriptive at all. It is pretty obvious why she got denied - it was her support of Finkelstein and that it would've looked really bad if only he was denied.
Many of us students are personal supporters of Dr. Finkelstein, either we had classes with him, had read his books, or randomly see him walking around the dept with a steak that he cooked in his little oven he hides under his desk. Dr. Finkelstein is neither tactful nor politically correct (its just him trying to be funny in class) though according to the student reviews of teaching, Dr. Finkelstein has the highest scores in the entire Dept. of Political Science. I assure you its not beceause he's easy - he is definitly not - but his intensity in teaching the material accurately and without bias is inspiring. The students here love him and hate the administration for this injustice. A few weeks ago a group of students, including myself, met up to discuss the possibility of his denial of tenure. While highly publicized, no one actually believed that he would be denied (this included myself). Last friday, I was at work where I received an SMS from my girlfriend with the news that he was denied - literally, I felt a gagging sensation like I was going to vomit. Over the course of the weekend, a number of student leaders from organizations ranging from Model United Nations, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Campaign to End the Death Penalty mobilized their constituencies and held at sit-in at DePaul President Holtschneider's office. After questioning him we realized that he was unsympathetic and was doing the whole: "oh these spoiled little kids... let me appease them and nod a bit." In the end, to him and his staff DePaul is a business. Although at this meeting he told us he would allow us to stage a sit-in at his office for as long as it takes for us to prove our point, after two days he declared if we weren't out by 5 he would have us expelled from DePaul for disrupting business operations. He even sent the Chicago Police up to rush us out the door. Some professors who were with us in solidarity were notifed that they would not be protected by DePaul should they be arrested by Chicago police in this situation.
On Wednesday a few of us students were invited to a meeting of the Faculty Council where there were over 150 faculty questioning the Provost on the tenure procedure, and it was found by the faculty that on 7 points procedure was not followed correctly in the tenure decisions of the faculty in question. The Provost said very strongly that procedure was followed and that there would be no appeal because the right does not exist for faculty in cases of employment termination. The Faculty Council afterwards voted in favor of an appeal process for the two faculty. Yesterday, we were invited another faculty meeting, the Faculty Governance Council, which represents the College of LA&S. The room was packed with another 150 faculty that were scared for themselves. The question remained - if professors can be approved for tenure by their department and the college - in the case of Larudee, unanimously, but denied at the top levels, what job security is there for junior faculty except to censor their own work? The morale of junior faculty at DePaul is a bust. I have already spoken to some faculty that have decided not to send in some of their work for publication for fear that controversial submissions would lead to the denial of their own tenure. Furthermore, there have been talk of the American Association of University Professors censuring DePaul, and other individual universities are moving to boycott DePaul, which means publications and conferences held at those universities would deny all submissions from DePaul faculty.
Essentially, this is a crisis of academic freedom at DePaul. Students and faculty are outraged and concerned of what appears to be a purge in our ranks. The faculty are concerned of what this means for their own publications and bids for tenure. I myself feel hurt that the value of my degree has been tarnished by the actions of my university and I recommend that all parties boycott DePaul.
Thank you for your time, if you have any questions for us students, please visit http://www.finkelgate.com .
Sincerely
Victor Lang
For more information:
http://www.finkelgate.com
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