I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with the ongoing soap opera between Norman Finkelstein and Alan Dershowitz. I'm going to do my best to explain the situation.
Norman Finkelstein is an Associate Professor of Political Science at DePaul University here in Chicago. He has written books that are very critical of Israel from several standpoints, one of them being Israel's human rights record. Finkelstein's research is very highly regarded, but he is seen by some people, primarily zionists as a traitor or self-hating Jew, or anti-semite, one of the many moral judgments leveled against Jews that are critical of Israel or Judaism.
Finkelstein's Phd dissertation was written to expose that the data used in a book titled "From Time Immemorial" was intentionally fudged, and he was able to prove this. Where this gets very sticky is here: Dershowitz wrote a book called "A Case for Israel" in which he cited the faulty research from the book "From Time Immemorial". Do you get the picture???? Finkelstein was able to prove that Dershowitz plagiarized a book that was very popular amongst many Jews in the U.S. Dershowitz' book was very complementary of Israel's actions with regard to how they managed the Palestinian problem. The funny thing is that Dershowitz used the original citations for the data that he stole, not even giving credit to the original author of "From Time Immemorial"
Because Finkelstein called out Dershowitz, they have been at war with one another, and Dershowitz has been running a campaign against Finkelstein's tenure request at DePaul. On Friday DePaul decided to DENY Finkelstein his tenure.
www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php
I recommend looking at this link. I think this is going to be a substantial news story, and although I have not explained it well I recommend that you all take a moment to learn about this situation.
Personally I'm disgusted with DePaul and believe that controversial scholarship is what education really requires to be effective and rewarding. Conformity and passiveness lead to maintaining the status quo and that is anathema to expanding our scholarly horizons as a civilized people.
What do you think?????
Norman Finkelstein is an Associate Professor of Political Science at DePaul University here in Chicago. He has written books that are very critical of Israel from several standpoints, one of them being Israel's human rights record. Finkelstein's research is very highly regarded, but he is seen by some people, primarily zionists as a traitor or self-hating Jew, or anti-semite, one of the many moral judgments leveled against Jews that are critical of Israel or Judaism.
Finkelstein's Phd dissertation was written to expose that the data used in a book titled "From Time Immemorial" was intentionally fudged, and he was able to prove this. Where this gets very sticky is here: Dershowitz wrote a book called "A Case for Israel" in which he cited the faulty research from the book "From Time Immemorial". Do you get the picture???? Finkelstein was able to prove that Dershowitz plagiarized a book that was very popular amongst many Jews in the U.S. Dershowitz' book was very complementary of Israel's actions with regard to how they managed the Palestinian problem. The funny thing is that Dershowitz used the original citations for the data that he stole, not even giving credit to the original author of "From Time Immemorial"
Because Finkelstein called out Dershowitz, they have been at war with one another, and Dershowitz has been running a campaign against Finkelstein's tenure request at DePaul. On Friday DePaul decided to DENY Finkelstein his tenure.
www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php
I recommend looking at this link. I think this is going to be a substantial news story, and although I have not explained it well I recommend that you all take a moment to learn about this situation.
Personally I'm disgusted with DePaul and believe that controversial scholarship is what education really requires to be effective and rewarding. Conformity and passiveness lead to maintaining the status quo and that is anathema to expanding our scholarly horizons as a civilized people.
What do you think?????
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Chicago
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Re: Finkelstein's tenure denied at DePaul
Mon, June 11, 2007 - 2:10 PMDePaul honchoes did not want to alienate BIG BUcks !!! as for as they are concerned who cares for truth and scholarship .
dersh is a blowhard , opportunist and would lie happily to advance himself . that he is a endowed chair at harvard tells every thing . funny thing is not long ago they made ( during the tenure of larry " loot and destroy USSR " summer's tenure ) some black scholars leave because their " research " was not up to snuff !
