RePortersNoteBook.com: Feb 18, 2012

Surprise, Norman Finkelstein is a Zionist.

=====

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

__._,_.___

Feb 18, 2012