Norman Finkelstein is a political scientist, activist, professor, and author.
He has written extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, focusing on the Israeli government’s policies towards Palestinians, accusing Israel of human rights violations against them. Norman has historically advocated for a two-state solution which envisions an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, based on the pre-1967 borders.
A couple of decades ago he wrote a book called The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, in which he exposes the wide array of organisations and individuals who claim to be defenders of Jews and Nazi holocaust victims while, in reality, serving their own interests.
To be clear, a holocaust is a catastrophic event characterised by widespread destruction, devastation, or the mass extermination of a large number of people. Which is why Finkelstein says “Nazi holocaust” instead of “the Holocaust”, due to the fact that multiple holocausts have occurred throughout history.
In the book, he criticises the manipulation of Nazi-holocaust-related issues to advance particular agendas, often at the expense of the Palestinian cause and other humanitarian concerns.
He goes on to say that the Nazi holocaust has been elevated to an event in history so unique that, to even suggest that the suffering of any other group of people might possibly be just as tragic (or worse) constitutes “Holocaust denial”. In other words, questioning the events in Rwanda and Cambodia is not denial, but questioning the events in Germany is denial (and punishable by law in some countries).
Finkelstein’s mother, who survived both the Warsaw and Majdanek camps, was given an embarrassing $3000.
The Holocaust has proven to be an indispensable ideological weapon. Through its deployment, one of the world’s most formidable military powers, with a horrendous human rights record, has cast itself as a “victim” state, and the most successful ethnic group in the United States has likewise acquired victim status.
Norman Finkelstein
Where did all the billions of “reparation” dollars go?
In fact, where are all the billions of dollars still going?
