Noam Chomsky And Norman Finkelstein, The Most Frontal Jewish Intellectuals Defending Palestine

Noam Chomsky (Sumber: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Israel's systematic efforts to bury the narrative of Palestinian liberation run on almost every front. Starting from the western mainstream media, social media, to the academic world. They insisted on removing Palestine on an intellectual level. However, there are at least two intellectuals whose voices are loudly resisting, so the narrative of Palestinian defenders is growing in the West: Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein. And they are Jews.

Israel's efforts to silence the voices of Palestinian supporters are so real. From the abolition of the pro-Palestinian narrative in the mainstream media, to the digital practice of apartheid. Even systematic silencing efforts occur in the academic world.

Nahdatul Ulama (NU) scholar Ulil Abshar Abdallah via his Twitter account told how Western intellectuals who supported Palestine were founded. One of them was Norman Finkelstein who failed to win a permanent professorship for defending Palestine.

It all started when in 2003 Alan Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard Law School known as israel's fanatical defender in America published a book called A Case for Israel. The book is often used as a primary reference for defenders of Israel.

After publication, a reviewer strongly refuted the arguments in Dershowitz's book. The paper calls Dershowitz's book a lie, a lie, plagiarism, and nonsense. The author is none other than Norman Finkelstein.

Finkelstein's accusations of plagiarism angered Dershowitz. Blood was rising to the head when Finkelstein's argument was recorded in 2005. The book, titled Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, was created specifically to refute Dershowitz's book.

This is where the scandal began. Before Finkelstein's book was published, Dershowitz had attempted to cancel the book by expressing it to his publisher. He threatened to sue the law. But the publisher insisted on launching the book.

Then another more embarrassing scandal did Dershowitz. In 2006, he was directed to DePaul University in Chicago where Finkelstein taught. "Dershowitz requested that the university not give Finkelstein 'tenure'," Ulil said.

Initially, the political science department and the faculty of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences where Finkelstein taught had agreed to recommend him for tenure. But at the university level, the decision was rejected.

Norman Finkelstein (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

"Dershowitz's practice is clearly embarrassing, because it interferes with the internal affairs of other universities in the appointment of a professor. The faculty sent a letter to Harvard teaching Dershowitz; expressed outrage over this intervention," Ulil wrote.

What finkelstein did was not a single event. A number of professors in America and Canada failed to take office for supporting palestine. And this, according to Edward Said, the pro-Palestinian activist who rocked the academic world in the late 80s, became one of Palestine's toughest challenges. Said was one of those who opposed Israel's systematic campaign to commit the abolition of Palestine in intellectual representation.

Finkelstein was one of the Jewish intellectuals who defended Palestine. His main areas of research were the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the politics of the Holocaust because it was motivated by the experiences of his parents who were Holocaust survivors.

Finkelstein graduated from Binghamton University and earned a Ph.D. in political science from Princeton University. He holds faculty positions at Brooklyn College, Rutgers University, Hunter College, New York University, and DePaul University.

Then after a dispute between himself and Dershowitz ensued, in 2007 Finkelstein's tenure at DePaul was terminated. He was previously on administrative leave for the 2007-2008 academic year, and on 5 September 2007, he resigned.

Noam Chomsky

In addition to Finkelstein, the Jewish intellectual defenders of Palestine whose loud voice was Avram Noam Chomsky or Noam Chomsky. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, december 7, 1928, he is a linguistics professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His ideas on linguistics marked the development of modern linguistics. No wonder he earned the nickname Mr. Modern Linguistics.

His expertise in linguistics led him to political studies. At least Chomsky has written 30 political books on a variety of themes.

His name rose to prominence after becoming one of the most critical intellectual figures on American foreign policy since 1965. His political books are often considered too radical to be discussed in U.S. public spaces.

And Chomsky is also known as one of the United States intellectuals who dared to confront directly, opposing Israel's annexation of Palestinian land. "One land with two states, this is the main essence of the Israeli-Palestinian problem" he says in the book The Chomsky Reader.

Noam Chomsky (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Chomsky grew up in a highly educated family. His father Dr William Zev Chomsky was known as a Grammatical expert in Hebrew. While her mother is named Elsie Simonofksy.

By the age of 12, Chomsky had read one of his father's great works on 13th-century Hebrew grammar. In addition to introducing the language and cultural heritage of his ancestors, Jews, Chomsky's father also introduced the intellectual traditions that later were inherent in Chomsky.

Chomsky inherited intellectual freedom from his father. While her mother has a tendency towards anti-antiquarian activism that emphasizes the importance of balance to act as a thinker as well as an activist.

Perhaps it was his early education from his parents that shaped Chomsky into a libertarian socialist and had a strong instinct and rationale for defending human rights. For this reason he became one of the people who defended Palestine.

Other BERNAS