U.S. academic Finkelstein meets top Hizbullah official in Lebanon
Source: AP, 7-1-2008
A vocal American critic of "Israel" met Monday with a senior official from the militant Hizbullah group and visited villages in southern Lebanon that witnessed heavy fighting in the 2006 war between the guerrillas and the Zionist state.
Norman Finkelstein, who resigned last year as a political science professor at DePaul University in Chicago, met Hizbullah's commander in south Lebanon, Nabil Kaouk, in his office in the coastal city of Tyre.
He visited the border village of Maroun el-Rass where heavy fighting between Hizbullah guerrillas and "Israeli" troops took place during the two side's 34-day war in the summer 2006, according to the state-run National News Agency and Hizbullah's Al-Manar television.
Finkelstein also toured the border village of Aita al-Shaab, the location from where Hizbullah anti-occupation militants captured two invading "Israeli" soldiers in a bid to free Lebanese and other prisoners previously kidnapped by "Israel", as well as the remains of others who were executed in "Israel's" torture chambers.
"Israel" used the capture of two of its soldiers as a pretext to the 2006 war "Israel" launched against Lebanon which left more than 1,000 Lebanese, mostly civilians, dead.
160 "Israelis" were died, mostly from the military forces, when they ran into fierce anti-occupation Hizbullah militants in a month long hopeless battle to occupy Lebanese villages.
Finkelstein said "After the horror and after the shame and after the anger there still remain a hope, and I know that I can get in a lot of trouble for what I am about to say, but I think that the Hizbullah represents the hope. They are fighting to defend their homeland," the Brooklyn-born Finkelstein told reporters.
Finkelstein is on a one-week visit to Lebanon where he is scheduled to hold lectures and visit Palestinian refugee camps.
In the past, Finkelstein has argued that some Jewish groups have exploited the Holocaust for political and financial gain. In September, Finkelstein resigned from his job at DePaul University, months after he was denied tenure at the school where his views and scholarship came under fire.
In 2000, Finkelstein published The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the
Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. The reaction to the book - in which he claimed Jews in "Israel" and the United States have used the Holocaust to, among other things, extort money from Germany - was both loud and angry.
Deplores "Israel's" massacres
On Saturday evening, following a tour of the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps, Finkelstein delivered a lecture titled "Memoirs of an anti-Zionist" at the Babel Theater in Hamra. The US-based academic's speech, read in English and translated into Arabic, centered on how Finkelstein became involved in the conflict and the repercussions in academia which ensued, culminating in a blocked tenure bid at De Paul University in Chicago conducted by supporters of pro-"Israeli" policy.
Finkelstein's involvement in the issue began following the "Israeli" invasion of Lebanon in 1982, a date until which he had read "practically nothing on the subject." The day after the invasion began, the author participated in a daily vigil outside of the "Israeli" consulate in Manhattan in New York City to protest the war. Finkelstein recalled the placard he held at the rally which read: "This son of survivors of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, Auschwitz, and Majdanek will not be silent. "Israeli" Nazis stop the Holocaust in Lebanon."
The protest reached its height four months later, Finkelstein said, when "Israel" and its allies orchestrated the Sabra and Shatila massacres. Beginning on September 15, 1982, the "Israeli" Army, having driven the Palestinian Liberation Organization from Beirut, surrounded the camps and, providing logistical and material support, allowed members of the Phalange militia to kill up to 3,500 Palestinians.
Taking up a position in a mainly Jewish area of Manhattan, Finkelstein stood with a placard reading: "Another massacre in Lebanon, how long will we be silent?"
When a passerby asked, "Do you have to do this on Sabbath?" Finkelstein responded: "I wouldn't have to if 'Israel' didn't massacre Arabs on the Sabbath."
On Sunday, Finkelstein toured the South and visited the site of the second Qana massacre, where he met with survivors of the attack and made a brief statement. During the 2006 war, "Israeli" warplanes bombed a Qana apartment building where two families were seeking refuge in the basement, killing 28, among them 16 children.
"First of all I want express my horror and the difficulty it is to be in the presence of people who are the survivors of those who died. And it should be obvious that there are no words to convey those feelings of horror," he said.
"Number two, [I want to express] those feelings of shame, because the simple fact is that the war and those deaths were caused by the US government. People should not fool themselves that this war was done by "Israel"; this was an American war and for American interests.
"The third feeling I have is disgust; Why are the Lebanese welcoming the US president here? Whenever a foreign diplomat travels to "Israel", he or she has to go to Yad Vashem [the "Israeli" holocaust memorial]. So why don't the Lebanese have at least that much dignity to say that [US President George W.] Bush has to come here before he meets them?" Finkelstein asked.
"The last thing I want to say is: After the horror and after the shame and after the anger, there still remains the hope. And I know I can get in a lot of trouble for what I'm about to say, but I think that Hizbullah represents the hope. They are fighting to defend their homeland, they are fighting to defend the independence of their country, they are defending themselves against foreign marauders, vandals and murderers and I consider it to be genuinely to be an honor to be in their presence."
A vocal American critic of "Israel" met Monday with a senior official from the militant Hizbullah group and visited villages in southern Lebanon that witnessed heavy fighting in the 2006 war between the guerrillas and the Zionist state.
Norman Finkelstein, who resigned last year as a political science professor at DePaul University in Chicago, met Hizbullah's commander in south Lebanon, Nabil Kaouk, in his office in the coastal city of Tyre.
He visited the border village of Maroun el-Rass where heavy fighting between Hizbullah guerrillas and "Israeli" troops took place during the two side's 34-day war in the summer 2006, according to the state-run National News Agency and Hizbullah's Al-Manar television.
Finkelstein also toured the border village of Aita al-Shaab, the location from where Hizbullah anti-occupation militants captured two invading "Israeli" soldiers in a bid to free Lebanese and other prisoners previously kidnapped by "Israel", as well as the remains of others who were executed in "Israel's" torture chambers.
"Israel" used the capture of two of its soldiers as a pretext to the 2006 war "Israel" launched against Lebanon which left more than 1,000 Lebanese, mostly civilians, dead.
160 "Israelis" were died, mostly from the military forces, when they ran into fierce anti-occupation Hizbullah militants in a month long hopeless battle to occupy Lebanese villages.
Finkelstein said "After the horror and after the shame and after the anger there still remain a hope, and I know that I can get in a lot of trouble for what I am about to say, but I think that the Hizbullah represents the hope. They are fighting to defend their homeland," the Brooklyn-born Finkelstein told reporters.
Finkelstein is on a one-week visit to Lebanon where he is scheduled to hold lectures and visit Palestinian refugee camps.
In the past, Finkelstein has argued that some Jewish groups have exploited the Holocaust for political and financial gain. In September, Finkelstein resigned from his job at DePaul University, months after he was denied tenure at the school where his views and scholarship came under fire.
In 2000, Finkelstein published The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the
Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. The reaction to the book - in which he claimed Jews in "Israel" and the United States have used the Holocaust to, among other things, extort money from Germany - was both loud and angry.
Deplores "Israel's" massacres
On Saturday evening, following a tour of the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps, Finkelstein delivered a lecture titled "Memoirs of an anti-Zionist" at the Babel Theater in Hamra. The US-based academic's speech, read in English and translated into Arabic, centered on how Finkelstein became involved in the conflict and the repercussions in academia which ensued, culminating in a blocked tenure bid at De Paul University in Chicago conducted by supporters of pro-"Israeli" policy.
Finkelstein's involvement in the issue began following the "Israeli" invasion of Lebanon in 1982, a date until which he had read "practically nothing on the subject." The day after the invasion began, the author participated in a daily vigil outside of the "Israeli" consulate in Manhattan in New York City to protest the war. Finkelstein recalled the placard he held at the rally which read: "This son of survivors of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, Auschwitz, and Majdanek will not be silent. "Israeli" Nazis stop the Holocaust in Lebanon."
The protest reached its height four months later, Finkelstein said, when "Israel" and its allies orchestrated the Sabra and Shatila massacres. Beginning on September 15, 1982, the "Israeli" Army, having driven the Palestinian Liberation Organization from Beirut, surrounded the camps and, providing logistical and material support, allowed members of the Phalange militia to kill up to 3,500 Palestinians.
Taking up a position in a mainly Jewish area of Manhattan, Finkelstein stood with a placard reading: "Another massacre in Lebanon, how long will we be silent?"
When a passerby asked, "Do you have to do this on Sabbath?" Finkelstein responded: "I wouldn't have to if 'Israel' didn't massacre Arabs on the Sabbath."
On Sunday, Finkelstein toured the South and visited the site of the second Qana massacre, where he met with survivors of the attack and made a brief statement. During the 2006 war, "Israeli" warplanes bombed a Qana apartment building where two families were seeking refuge in the basement, killing 28, among them 16 children.
"First of all I want express my horror and the difficulty it is to be in the presence of people who are the survivors of those who died. And it should be obvious that there are no words to convey those feelings of horror," he said.
"Number two, [I want to express] those feelings of shame, because the simple fact is that the war and those deaths were caused by the US government. People should not fool themselves that this war was done by "Israel"; this was an American war and for American interests.
"The third feeling I have is disgust; Why are the Lebanese welcoming the US president here? Whenever a foreign diplomat travels to "Israel", he or she has to go to Yad Vashem [the "Israeli" holocaust memorial]. So why don't the Lebanese have at least that much dignity to say that [US President George W.] Bush has to come here before he meets them?" Finkelstein asked.
"The last thing I want to say is: After the horror and after the shame and after the anger, there still remains the hope. And I know I can get in a lot of trouble for what I'm about to say, but I think that Hizbullah represents the hope. They are fighting to defend their homeland, they are fighting to defend the independence of their country, they are defending themselves against foreign marauders, vandals and murderers and I consider it to be genuinely to be an honor to be in their presence."
