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In an interview with the Intercept, the U.S. academic Norman Finkelstein, known for his outspoken views on the Israeli occupation, said Palestinians were not trying to cross a border fence, in fact, they were trying to "breach a concentration camp fence."
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When Intercept's Jeremy Scahill asked Finkelstein, "Is it accurate, is it calling things by the proper names to say that the Palestinians in Gaza are trying to breach a border fence?"
The academic responded, "No. The Palestinians in Gaza are trying to breach a concentration camp fence. They’re trying to breach a ghetto fence. They’re trying to breach a prison gate."
Finkelstein who has penned 11 books, including, "The Holocaust Industry," and "Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History" has a harrowing family history. The academic grew up in Brooklyn where his father was a factory worker and his mother stayed at home.
Finkelstein's father was a Jew resisting the Nazis, who survived both the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. Finkelstein's mother also survived the Warsaw ghetto, the Majdanek concentration camp, and Nazis-imposed slave labor.
"The people of Gaza are the only people in the world who don’t have that option. They’re caged in. In those circumstances, to refer to it as a border fence strikes me as almost obscene," the academic added.
So far, Israeli security forces have killed at least 104 Palestinians and wounded about 12,000 others during this year’s annual Palestine Great March of Return that began March 30. The march calls for refugees’ right to return to the Palestinian land they were forcibly expelled from in 1948.
Blacklisted Palestinian scholar pointed out that Palestinians were merely exercising their right to free themselves and they have a right to do so under the international law. Those who report stories on the ground like Haaretz are targeted, the academic pointed out.
"The respected Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, they refer to the “Gaza Ghetto,” with the obvious resonances for Jews, the Warsaw Ghetto," Finkelstein noted.
The academic also stated he has been targeted for his outspoken views and scholarship on Israel.
Finkelstein's latest book published January, "Gaza: An Inquest into its Martyrdom" is a detailed 440-page study of international law, of Israel’s sustained attacks against Gaza and its people and stands testament to one of the most horrifying and sustained campaigns of collective punishment in modern world history.
The book wasn't reviewed by any major U.S. publication.
He pointed out to Scahill during the interview, "You regain, you reclaim your right when you do three things."
"One, you end the illegal blockade of Gaza. Two, you end the illegal occupation of alien territory. And three, you give the people in Gaza and the West Bank the right to self-determination and statehood.
"The denial of all of those three rights, not one fundamental right, not two fundamental rights, three fundamental rights, the denial of those rights means you lose any right to quote-unquote “defend yourself.” Until and unless you end those three consecutive, compounded illegal situations."
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