Tikvah on the Finkelstein Event

Tikvah: Students for Israel held a peaceful protest outside the Finkelstein event on Wednesday, October 15, 2008. Many students took part in the protest, which sought to highlight Finkelstein's notoriously dangerous and racist views.

The speaker- Norman Finkelstein- is a vocal and adamant supporter of Hezbollah (considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, and many others). Beyond that, and most hurtfully, he is a Holocaust revisionist. The Washington Post on December 3, 2002 wrote, “Norman Finkelstein [is] a writer celebrated by neo-Nazi groups for his Holocaust revisionism and comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany.”

Following the protest, a group of students (some from Tikvah and others not) decided to speak out within the actual event.

Those who spoke out respect the right of groups to bring speakers of their choosing to campus in the name of free speech and exercised their right to free speech in response.

None of the protesters used any profanity at the event.

Members of my community and I made sure that our voices would not be silenced in the face of these indescribably hurtful messages.

So long as terrorist supporters and Holocaust revisionists like Finkelstein voice their extremism and hatred on this campus, there will be a louder voice in response.