Renowned lecturer and political scientist discusses Gaza conflict
On Thursday, Nov. 6, political scientist and analyst Norman Finkelstein gave a lecture on the Gaza Strip conflict at the University of Guelph’s War Memorial Hall. Dr. Finkelstein, a Jewish-American scholar born to survivors of the Auschwitz and Majdanek concentration camps, takes a strong pro-Palestinian stance on the Gaza conflict, and this has lead to significant controversy around Finkelstein and his work at Princeton University.
University of Guelph professors Renée Warringer and Ian Speares moderated the lecture. Warringer is a professor of Middle Eastern history, and Speares a professor of political science. The Arab Student’s Association and the Middle East Scholar’s Society organized the event, in association with the Society of Arab Students and OPIRG Guelph.
Finkelstein was around an hour late, due to a hold-up at the Toronto Island airport, and opened the event by humourously recounting his trip to Guelph.
Discussing Israeli defence strategies and attempting to dispel misconceptions and policy inconsistencies regarding the Palestinian right to self-defence, self-reliance, and the logistics of the conflict itself, Finkelstein’s lecture was impassioned. He condemned the Israeli encroachment on the West Bank, in addition to the international community’s response and the further militarization of the Israeli state in the wake of the ground offensive on Gaza, spearheaded in July of 2014.
Finkelstein divided his lecture into two parts. First, he outlined the conflict’s recent history, since 2008 and 2009’s IDF-initiated “Operation Cast Lead.” He explained how the situation has escalated from a blockade and air defence campaign to a ground operation. Second, he highlighted some ideas and tactics on how both Israelis and Palestinians may overcome the conflict and achieve peace in this historically unstable area.
Among the particular misconceptions he attempted to dispel were the accounts of 4000 rockets launched from Gaza between January and August of 2014. He stressed that this allegation must be accounted for in both terms of casualties and damage, asnd that both parties must delineate between a mortar and a rocket or, as Finkelstein called them, “enhanced fireworks.”
“I’m not sure about the people in this room, but for me, a rocket conjures a fairly sophisticated and large weapon,” said Finkelstein. “According to Israel, 4000 Hamas rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza. […] These 4000 ‘rockets’, they resulted in 7 civilian casualties and $15 million in [property] damage.”
“There’s obviously a huge discrepancy here that needs to be accounted for,” Finkelstein concluded. “Each side, both Israel and Hamas, had an interest in inflating the nature of the weapon that was being used.”
Finkelstein also criticized Israeli attacks on United Nations civilian shelters in Gaza during the ground offensive. After the seventh UN shelter was bombed, the UN and the United States formally condemned Israel for the first time during the ground offensive on Aug. 3,the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an end to the offensive.
Of the uneasy and disputed results of the conflict, Finkelstein said, “[Netanyahu] did not manage to break the unity government [Hamas and Fatah], he did not manage to have Hamas designated a terrorist organization […] He wanted to thwart EU-US negotiations with Hamas, and in the end Israel itself was negotiating with Hamas.”
His staunch stance against the Israeli government notwithstanding, Finkelstein’s advice and ideas about peace in the area were practical, pragmatic, and cautiously optimistic. Finkelstein concluded his lecture by stressing solidarity amongst (and with) Palestinians in Gaza and non-violent resistance – of which he alluded to the protests in Selma, Montgomery, considered to be the beginning of the American civil rights movement.