The plot against Finkelstein
Finally.
Norman Finkelstein is an intellectual hero who has at last had the deserving honour of being represented in a new documentary appropriately titled American Radical.
Dr. Finkelstein has devoted his academic career to exposing the lies and deceit that underpin the academic, popular, and mainstream media output on Israel and the country’s relationship to Palestine. I have personally seen this man take on propagandists who ignorantly accuse him of being a self-hating Jew, and witnessed his brilliant acumen in drawing on historical facts and moral certitude as he obliterated the opposition.
Finkelstein has dared to spend his days sweating over the hard facts, the evidence, of the obfuscated and one-sided representation of Israel as the “good and benevolent” nation, and has met with hostility from his colleagues, from the academic community in America, and from the public at large.
I have not yet had the opportunity to preview this documentary, but I am excited that this hero of American scholarship and activism has finally been focused on as the subject of a political film. As his opponents like Dershowitz sloppily demonize him, he meticulously unravels their tapestry of untruths. As the academy shuns him and puts professional road blocks in front of him, he soldiers on, exposing the lies and the truths of Israel – a nation that continues to illegally and brutally occupy another nation.
Dr. Finkelstein has had far too much unwarranted mud thrown at him and this documentary appears to be following in his footsteps of righting so many of those wrongs. Once the filmmakers send me a copy of this film, expect a review here at Art Threat.
Image from Ben Heine.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
After reading this, I did a search on my computer for ‘Finkelstein’, knowing I had a slew of files from the past couple of years mentioning him, and found the majority of them to be DemocracyNow! pages. I went to the DN! site and did a search for him and thus reacquainted myself with his ordeals and interviews, this being the latest:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/29/israel_bars_one_of_its_most
As seminal a subject as Israel is, Norman Finkelstein brings an analogy to mind, the adage of levers and fulcrums -his voice is simply the strongest on the subject -and many related subjects I would add. -The timing of this documentary in these days of purported ‘change’ is strong.
This page is the first I’ve heard of this documentary.
…I haven’t been here in a long while but have had this site’s url always close by (near top of my site’s blogroll). A recent ram repair has had me reviewing my web surfing habits and here I was well rewarded for my return…
Thanks for your comments John, I hope you keep coming back…
I maintain a website that includes a number of videos involving Finkelstein and several other notable commentators. For those interested: http://home.mchsi.com/~kjlevy/