Professor Norman Finkelstein, an American Jewish scholar known for his trenchant criticism of Israeli policy, was detained and interrogated by Israels security forces, Shin Bet, for 24 hours at Tel Avivs Ben Gurion airport on May 23, denied entry into Israel and deported back to Amsterdam where he had been lecturing. He has also been banned from entering Israel for 10 years, for so-called “security reasons.”

The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz has published an editorial criticizing the Israeli government’s decision to ban American academic Norman Finkelstein from entering the country. Finkelstein is known one of the most prominent academic critics of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The Ha’aretz editorial reads in part: “Considering his unusual and extremely critical views, one cannot avoid the suspicion that refusing to allow him to enter Israel was a punishment rather than a precaution….The right to enter Israel is not guaranteed to noncitizens, but the right of Israeli citizens to hear unusual views is one that should be fought for. It is not for the government to decide which views should be heard here and which ones should not. The decision to ban Finkelstein hurts us more than it hurts him.”

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