State-Supported Publisher Criticized for Printing Anti-Semitic Book
by Jim Brown
July 13, 2005
(AgapePress) - A noted author and Harvard University law professor is asking why the University of California Press is publishing an anti-Semitic book written by a "Holocaust denier."
The UC Press has come under fire for publishing Norman Finkelstein's book Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, which accuses Israel of being the worst human-rights violator in the world. The book also claims supporters of Israel prevent human-rights abuses by that country from getting the attention they deserve, in part by calling those who raise such issues "anti-Semites."
Finkelstein has garnered attention for claiming Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz did not write his book, The Case for Israel, even though Dershowitz wrote every word of it by hand because he does not type or use a computer. Dershowitz says UC Press should not be using tax dollars to publish a book by a man who compares Israel to Nazi Germany even though he has never been to Israel.
"If [Finkelstein] were writing a book that was 'homophobic,' against gays, or if he were writing a book that was against women or against African Americans, the Left would be rising up and [asking], 'How can you have a state university publishing this kind of racism and bigotry?'" Dershowitz observes. "But he is writing a book against Jews, against the Jewish state of Israel and [against] Jewish leaders and others -- and he's getting away with it."
The Harvard prof contends that even though it is funded by the state of California, the UC Press would never publish anything that was centrist, pro-Christian, pro-Jewish, or pro-Israel. Dershowitz is convinced the UC Press is pursuing a hard-left ideological agenda. While the law professor acknowledges the publisher, under the First Amendment, has to right to publish or not publish whatever it chooses, he also notes that the First Amendment does not "compel anybody to publish this kind of nonsense."
"I mean, nobody would publish a Nazi book in America even though the First Amendment permits a Nazi book to be published," he says. "Norman Finkelstein is the equivalent of a neo-Nazi and the equivalent of a Holocaust denier -- and he is the first person who fits that category that is being published by a major university press."
Dershowitz has written a new book titled The Case for Peace, in which he responds to charges by Finkelstein and others in the "anti-Israel" crowd.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
