‘American Radical’ Norman Finkelstein to give public lecture at Beloit College on April 12

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Hailed as a courageous scholar and truth teller by some and denounced as a Jewish “anti-Semite” by others, Norman Finkelstein is easily described as a polarizing figure who writes and speaks openly and often about his views regarding one of the world's most debated conflicts. This internationally recognized Jewish-American scholar on the Israel-Palestine conflict will discuss his views and his latest book “This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion” in a public lecture at Beloit College, in Wisconsin, on Monday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the atrium of the Center for the Sciences.

The appearance is being sponsored by the Beloit College Political Science Department, the Peace & Justice Club, MUN Club, International Club, Pagan Fellowship, and The Office of Intercultural Affairs. A Q&A session will follow Dr. Finkelstein’s presentation. Seats will be available on a first come, first served basis.

A documentary about Finkelstein titled “American Radical: Trials of Norman Finkelstein” (see trailer) is currently on the screening circuit and will play in Chicago on April 24 at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival. Avi Shlaim, an Arab-Israeli Historian and professor of international relations at Oxford, has called Finkelstein a “very able, very erudite and original scholar who has made an important contribution to the study of Zionism, to the study of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, in particular, to the study of American attitudes towards Israel and towards the Middle East."

Finkelstein, who earned his Ph.D. in politics at Princeton University, is the son of Holocaust survivors and is the author of several books including “Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history” (University of California Press, 2005). A more complete biography is available on his Web site.