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GUEST: Norman Finkelstein, Political Scientist, Author of “Beyond Chutzpah”

In a follow up to a story covered on Uprising: activists, scholars and students have organized a “Middle East Awareness Week” on the USC campus. Presented by Students for Justice in Palestine and the Political Student Assembly, the ongoing week of events will feature speakers as well as a closing “Poetry of Peace,” concert. In response to last month’s nationwide right-wing so-called “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” organizers will address various issues in raising awareness about the Middle East and beyond. Topics in the week include the media and the Middle East, human rights in Afghanistan, and the Israel Lobby. Norman Finkelstein will speak about the lobby’s relationship to U.S. Foreign policy. Outside pressure groups that present themselves as defenders of Israel have exerted influence over Finkelstein’s ability to become a tenured professor. He was also recently pulled from being an invited participant in an Israel-Palestine debate at Oxford University. Seeing this and other threats to academic freedom, hundreds of professors have signed a petition against encroaching influences on scholastic free speech.

Norman Finkelstein will be speaking:
Thursday, November 15th, 6 p.m.
University of Southern California
Taper Hall of Humanities 101