Norman Finkelstein quotes

Norman Finkelstein is an American political scientist, author, and educator known for his work on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and criticism of Israeli policies. His research has sparked significant debate and controversy in academic and political circles. He has published numerous books and lectures internationally on issues related to human rights and Middle Eastern politics. Here are 29 of his quotes:

That said, sometimes I feel that Israel has come out of the boils of the hell, a satanic state.

Norman Finkelstein

If everyone who claims to be a survivor actually is one,' my mother used to exclaim, ‘who did Hitler kill then?

Norman Finkelstein

Indeed, the field of Holocaust studies is replete with nonsense if not sheer fraud.

Norman Finkelstein

Speaking as a devout atheist, thank God in his Almighty wisdom that he made us mortal.

Norman Finkelstein

Since the mid-1970s, there's been an international consensus for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict. [...] It's called a two-state settlement, and a two-state settlement is pretty straightforward, uncomplicated. Israel has to fully withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza and Jerusalem, in accordance with the fundamental principle of international law, [...] that it's inadmissible to acquire territory by war. The West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, having been acquired by war, it's inadmissible for Israel to keep them. They have to be returned. On the Palestinian side and also the side of the neighboring Arab states, they have to recognize Israel's right to live in peace and security with its neighbors. That was the quid pro quo: recognition of Israel, Palestinian right to self-determination in the West Bank and Gaza with its capital in Jerusalem. That's the international consensus. It's not complicated. It's also not controversial.

Norman Finkelstein

To my thinking the honorable thing now is to show solidarity with Hezbollah as the US and Israel target it for liquidation. Indeed, looking back my chief regret is that I wasn't even more forceful in publicly defending Hezbollah against terrorist intimidation and attack.

Norman Finkelstein

What were the offers being made on each side of the Camp David and in the Taba talks? [...] if you frame things in terms of what Israel was legally entitled to under international law, then Israel made precisely and exactly zero concessions. All the concessions were made by the Palestinians.

Norman Finkelstein

Whenever Israel faces a public relations debacle such as the Intifada or international pressure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, American Jewish organizations orchestrate this extravaganza called the 'new anti-Semitism.' The purpose is several-fold. First, it is to discredit any charges by claiming the person is an anti-Semite. It's to turn Jews into the victims, so that the victims are not the Palestinians any longer. As people like Abraham Foxman of the ADL put it, the Jews are being threatened by a new holocaust. It's a role reversal – the Jews are now the victims, not the Palestinians. So it serves the function of discrediting the people leveling the charge. It's no longer Israel that needs to leave the Occupied Territories; it's the Arabs who need to free themselves of the anti-Semitism.

Norman Finkelstein

There are a large number of claims circulating about rampant anti-Semitism on college campuses. When you go actually go through the records, talk to the schools, speak to the deans and so forth, all of these claims turn out to be fraudulent. There's just no record of this so-called rampant anti-Semitism on college campuses. The most striking example is Columbia University where [...] pro-Israel outsiders were disrupting the classrooms of these professors [falsely accued of anti-Semitism], secretly video-taping their lectures and being turned, as the Columbia Report put it, into informers for the pro-Israel lobby. The real story was the harassment of professors who were critical of Israeli policy.

Norman Finkelstein

Articulating the key Holocaust dogmas, much of the literature on Hitler's Final solution is worthless as scholarship. Indeed, the field of Holocaust studies is replete with nonsense, if not sheer fraud.

Norman Finkelstein

Both my father and mother were survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps. Apart from my parents, every family member on both sides was exterminated by the Nazis.

Norman Finkelstein

My original interest in the Nazi holocaust was personal. Both my father and mother were survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps. Apart from my parents, every family member on both sides was exterminated by the Nazis.

Norman Finkelstein

The whole purpose of annual reviews is to keep you abreast of whether or not you are fulfilling the requirements of tenure.

Norman Finkelstein

The Zionists indeed learnt well from the Nazis. So well that it seems that their morally repugnant treatment of the Palestinians, and their attempts to destroy Palestinian society within Israel and the occupied territories, reveals them as basically Nazis with beards and black hats.

Norman Finkelstein

Everybody wants peace. That's a truism. There is no point in accomplishing through war what you can accomplish through peace.

Norman Finkelstein

International law says people fighting for self-determination can use force in order to achieve their independence.

Norman Finkelstein

Every victory of Hezbollah, I celebrate.

Norman Finkelstein

The Holocaust only emerged in American life after Israel's victory in the 1967 Six Day war against its Arab neighbours.

Norman Finkelstein

I'm politically on the left, no question about it. I oppose sweatshops, I oppose exploitation of labour in the third world.

Norman Finkelstein

There is no way a non-Jew could say what I did in 'The Holocaust Industry' without being labelled a Holocaust denier. I am labelled a Holocaust denier, too.

Norman Finkelstein

When I was a young man, my mother said to me, 'You can't be a communist without being a militant atheist.' So I had to be a militant atheist because I wanted to be a communist.

Norman Finkelstein

I would not have stayed at a university if it told me upfront that a condition for me getting tenure. my views have to be filtered through Catholic values. I would consider it a betrayal of my parents' legacy.

Norman Finkelstein