Editor’s Note: Tomas Hinckley, one of the organizers for this event, is the opinion editor at The Daily Campus.
Prominent activist and political scientist Norman Finkelstein will hold a lecture about the genocide in Palestine in the Student Union theater from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.
The lecture, “Where We Are and Where We Go From Here,” is co-sponsored by the UConn Muslim Students’ Association, UConn UNCHAIN, EcoHusky, UConn Students for Justice in Palestine, the Connecticut Palestine Alliance and the Northeast Connecticut Gaza Peace Group, according to a press release.
Finkelstein has had a 40-year career in academia but has not held a steady academic position since being denied tenure by DePaul University in 2007, according to The DePaulia. He has written over 10 books, according to his website.
Dylan Steer, an eighth-semester environmental studies and political science student discussed arranging the lecture. He said that it started when he and student Tomas Hinckley has a class with sociology professor Phoebe Godfrey. Godfrey had a connection to Finkelstein and thought that they may be able to bring him on campus, according to Steer.
“We got into contact with the people she knew and slowly but surely, we started to think about what the event could look like and try and reach out to them,” Steer said. “It’s been a few months in the making.”
Steer said they began to plan the meeting in October or November. He discussed Finkelstein’s advocacy.
“He is especially outspoken on the issue because he’s a child of Holocaust survivors,” Steer said. “He’s Jewish himself and he grew up in New York and he has said many times that he sees a lot of similarities between the people of Palestine, particularly in Gaza, […] and what his parents told him.”
Steer said that the primary goal of the event was education.
“It’s a huge deal to get someone of his caliber on our campus,” Steer said. “I think he’s a great person to teach people about this issue who don’t necessarily know much.”
The lecture will raise money for the United Nations Relief Works Agency. A Tiltify page states that their goal is to raise $1,000.
“We were discussing a few different groups for charity, but we thought UNRWA was a pretty non-controversial pick since it’s a UN organization,” Steer said. “It’s been operating for many, many years, and the work that it does in Gaza […] it’s educating the children of Palestine, providing basic needs like housing, food, water and it’s really been critical in supporting the population.”
Steer said that organizers were hoping to get a turnout of about 300 people.
“We’re trying to engage a pretty big network to get people to come to this,” Steer said. “Because Norman Finkelstein, he doesn’t really make too, too many, like public appearances, lectures and that kind of thing.”
Total crackpot.