EDITORIAL – Professor fired for controversial views

Norman Finkelstein, controversial scholar, writer and critic of the state of Israel, was… Norman Finkelstein, controversial scholar, writer and critic of the state of Israel, was fired from his teaching post at DePaul University in Chicago last Friday and denied tenure.

Finkelstein, who is Jewish, has long criticized the way Jews have handled the Holocaust and has called leaders of American-Jewish groups “Holocaust mongers.” His views led the university to cancel Finkelstein’s only course, “Equality in Social Justice,” a week before fall classes began. According to the Chicago Tribune, Dean Chuck Suchar found Finkelstein’s teachings to be conflicting with “DePaul’s Vincentian Values” which include respect for the opinions of others -leading us to wonder why the university doesn’t respect his.

While we don’t necessarily agree with Finkelstein’s views, we do disagree with the principle that a professor, especially one deeply involved in his subject matter, should be fired for his ideas.

This is a professor who is not only well regarded by his students, but also by leading intellectuals such as writer Noam Chomsky and even the late Raul Hilberg, dean of Holocaust historians, according to the Chicago Tribune. This is also a professor who is on the forefront of his scholarly pursuits, fired simply for being on the “wrong” side of the debate.

We, for example, would not pull an editorial cartoon simply because it might be controversial or because we disagreed with the content. In fact, we believe controversy should be welcomed because it often comes with honest, balanced debate. For the same reason, we think professors like Finkelstein are just what a university needs. Because what makes a student want to learn more than a good controversy?

So it is unfortunate to think of the students who, in their undergraduate years, would be deprived of the chance to engage in the healthy debate that Finkelstein’s classes undoubtedly present.

It is comforting, however, to see that students at DePaul University seem to be of the same mind. According to the Chicago Tribune, students held Finkelstein in very high esteem, claiming that the professor’s tone in class was calculated and not at all like the intense controversial language in his books. Students are sticking by Finkelstein, who does not plan to take the matter lightly.

“I intend to go to my office on the first day of classes and, if my way is barred, to engage in civil disobedience,” Finkelstein told the Chicago Tribune. “If arrested, I’ll go on a hunger strike. If released, I’ll do it all over again. I’ll fast in jail for as long as it takes.”

The American Association of University Professors also sides with the professor and has contested the university’s actions as a breach of academic ethics. According to the AAUP, a professor who has been denied tenure not only has the right to a year’s salary, but also the right to a classroom. Furthermore, the AAUP stated that a member of the faculty cannot be fired without a hearing.

But we can’t help noticing that this matter is part of bigger, more critical picture. The Holocaust is a sensitive issue – there is no doubt about that. But it seems to have turned into so sensitive an issue that all attempts at debating it are always, in some way, obstructed. The Holocaust has grown into a no-nonsense, you-can’t-mess-with-it topic. People want to keep it locked up in a cage and pushed into the depths of an indestructible concrete sarcophagus.

Maybe it’s time this changed.

The way we see it, Finkelstein would be a much-valued addition to any university faculty, and in the end, it’s just DePaul’s loss.