Those of you familiar with Jewish-American professor Norman Finkelstein may recall the politically motivated decision to deny him tenure at DePaul University, along with the decision to put him on administrative leave for the academic year, followed by his eventual resignation. This clear assault against academic freedom was due mostly to an aggressive campaign headed by his bitter Zionist opponent Alan Dershowitz.

Above is the trailer for an upcoming film titled “American Radical“, which documents Finkelstein’s struggle prior to this latest incident.

After landing at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport on May 23rd, Professor Finkelstein was detained by the Israeli security service Shin Bet. He was interrogated for 24 hours before being deported and told that he was banned from Israel for 10 years.

In 2006, after Israel launched a pre-planned war of aggression against Lebanon as a test-run for Iran, Finkelstein publicly expressing solidarity with the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah. While detained by Shin Bet, the high-profile critic of Israeli occupation was questioned about whether he had met with al-Qaeda operatives or had been sent by Hezbollah. Finkelstein rejected the accusations, explaining that he had traveled to Israel to visit an old friend. Regardless, Shin Bet said the professor was “not permitted to enter Israel because of suspicions involving hostile elements in Lebanon,” and because he “did not give a full accounting to interrogators with regard to these suspicions.”

“I did my best to provide absolutely candid and comprehensive answers to all the questions put to me,” Finkelstein told Haaretz newspaper. “I am confident that I have nothing to hide. Apart from my political views, and the supporting scholarship, there isn’t much more to say for myself: alas, no suicide missions or secret rendezvous with terrorist organizations. I’ve always supported a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. I’m not an enemy of Israel.”

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said the deportation of Finkelstein was an assault on free speech. “The decision to prevent someone from voicing their opinions by arresting and deporting them is typical of a totalitarian regime,” said the association’s lawyer, Oded Peler. “A democratic state, where freedom of expression is the highest principle, does not shut out criticism or ideas just because they are uncomfortable for its authorities to hear. It confronts those ideas in public debate.” Of course, the Jewish State is no more a democracy than an “Islamic State” or “Christian State” which would likewise silence dissenting points of view.

Finkelstein is the son of Holocaust survivors and has been highly critical of Israel using anti-Semitism to stifle intellectual inquiry. He has also been outspoken against Israel’s policies of torture, apartheid, discrimination, and ethnic-cleansing against the Palestinians, which he compares to similar tactics employed by the Nazis. Unlike many bystanders during the Jewish Holocaust, Finkelstein has refused to remain silent and paid the price for such fearlessness again last Friday.

In a piece titled “Finkelstein to Shin Bet: Osama Sent Me“, Richard Silverstein says the following:

Remember Martin Niemoller. He began his career hating Jews. Then he became a critic of Hitler and was imprisoned by him for eight years. By the end of his imprisonment he understood that Jews were the canary in the coal mine. By not standing up for them when he should have, he made it that much easier for Hitler to come for him later on. I am simply shocked that I should have to say this to people who work for Jewish peace groups and Israeli human rights groups. It seems like an elementary and fundamental point that should be understood by anyone sensitive to these issues. Yet it isn’t.

Professor Finkelstein, who is one of the most prominent academic critics of Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, was held in a cell and had “several unpleasant moments with the guards at the airport and in the holding cell”, adding that “since martyrdom is not my cup of tea, I’ll spare you the details”. Finkelstein eventually borrowed the cell phone of another detainee to call a friend who in turn called a lawyer. Were it not for that phone call, the professor would probably still be denied his rights as a US citizen under secretive Israeli interrogation.

“A country that starts to fear what its harshest critics write about it is a country that is already behaving in a manner reminiscent of the darkest days of the communist regime,” said Michael Sfard, Finkelstein’s attorney. Sfard added that banning the critic from the country “recalls the behavior of the Soviet bloc countries.”

Professor Finkelstein has been publicly vilified, forced to resign from his job, and recently imprisoned by an American proxy state for daring to teach facts that are inconvenient to political groups and authorities. Attacking academic freedom has been a successful way to control information in what we believe to be a “free and democratic society”. As Niemöller’s poem goes, “First they came for Finkelstein, and I did not speak up because…”