Surprise, Norman Finkelstein is a Zionist.
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In the last few days, an interview with Norman Finkelstein
has been going viral on Facebook in which he called the BDS movement a
“cult” and that its rights-based demands are simply a cover for the
dismantling of the State of Israel. It’s an appalling claim that has left a
lot of activists shocked since Finkelstein has been quite a hero of the
Palestinian movement for some 30 years. Zionist extremists have been
crowing with delight about his stance on twitter and the blogosphere, while
some activists are trying to defend him by saying he is a realist and that
people are being too emotional about his statements. Well that argument
should be applied to Norman Finkelstein. He was the one being emotional,
insulting, accusatory and condescending. Furthermore, Norman needs to
remember that the Palestinians are resisting every day for their freedom,
many of them dying, losing their homes, being forcibly separated and that
they are entitled to use BDS as a tactic to put pressure on Israel. To call
the movement a "cult" is particularly insulting to a people for whom
international law has failed miserably. As much as Finkelstein has done for
Palestine, he is just one of many who have put their lives, careers and
reputations on the line. Yet, at the end of the day, there is not one
international activist who can truly understand what it is like to be a
Palestinian living under the oppressive conditions of Israeli domination or
being hopelessly outcast in a refugee camp, and I say, how dare any of us,
no matter how well meaning, to condescend to tell the Palestinians how they
should resist. BDS is the first campaign that is beginning to bite and now
we have Finkelstein on the one hand saying it will never achieve anything
while on the other that he has no problem with it. An excellent rebuttal to
Finkelstein’s unfortunate rant is given by Sean O’Neill who worked for the
Christian Peacemaker Teams in the South Hebron Hills and is currently an MA
candidate at New York University. His article and Finkelstein’s interview
can be seen here http://www.australiansforpalestine.net/58722#more-58722
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