Norman Finkelstein: Left critique of identity politics, cancel culture & academic freedom

Norman Gary Finkelstein (born December 8, 1953) is an American political scientist, activist, former professor, and author. His primary fields of research are the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the politics of the Holocaust. He is a graduate of Binghamton University and received his Ph.D. in political science at Princeton University. He has held faculty positions at Brooklyn College, Rutgers University, Hunter College, New York University, and DePaul University, where he was an assistant professor from 2001 to 2007.
In 2007, after a highly publicized feud between Finkelstein and Alan Dershowitz, an academic opponent, Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul. He was placed on administrative leave for the 2007–08 academic year, and on September 5, 2007, he announced his resignation after coming to a settlement with the university on largely undisclosed terms. In an official statement, Finkelstein said that as he had more than fulfilled the requirements for tenure, and the department and college-level committees had voted to tenure him, he concluded that the decision not to give tenure was due to external pressures that had affected the process; in the same statement, DePaul defended the decision to deny Finkelstein tenure and said that outside influence played no role in the decision, and described Finkelstein as "a prolific scholar and outstanding teacher." In 2008, he was denied entry to Israel and banned from entering the country for ten years.
On his 2018 magnum opus Gaza: An inquest into its martyrdom, Prof Noam Chomsky commented, “In its comprehensive sweep, deep probing and acute critical analysis, Finkelstein’s study stands alone.” John Dugard, a distinguished authority on international law who was also the U.N. Special Rapporteur in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, described Norman as “the most serious scholar on the conflict in the Middle East.” Raul Hilberg, the leading scholar on Holocaust studies said that Norman’s place in the whole history of writing history is assured and posterity will judge Norman Finkelstein’s work more fairly than ever.

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Time Stamp
00:00 Highlight
02:59 Introduction
05:12 Attacking woke left?
00:39:02 Identity politics
00:55:52 Corrupt or ethical Left?