Jewish professor fired for anti-Zionist posts, with Maura Finkelstein | EI Podcast

Across the US, students and faculty are continuing to resist repressive measures by university administrations intended to stifle or even criminalize speech in support of Palestinian rights, as the genocide in Gaza continues.

Along with elite US institutions calling riot cops on their own students who have been holding sit-in protests, or attempting to prevent students from holding protests altogether, some universities have tried to categorize the political ideology of Zionism as a protected identity class in order to define anti-Zionist speech as racist hate speech.

“As long as I’ve been a teacher, I’ve been teaching about Palestine – it’s always been either central or integrated into the work that I do,” Maura Finkelstein told The Electronic Intifada Podcast.

Finkelstein, a scholar of anthropology and a writer, taught at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania for nine years.

She had been teaching a course on the anthropology of Palestine, a class that she says had been approved by the college.

But even though she was tenured, she was fired in May 2024 over her social media posts in support of Palestinian rights and against the political ideology of Zionism – a move that has been seen as a warning to other anti-genocide professors.

The firing followed months of targeted harassment by Israel lobby groups and individuals who pressured the university to fire Finkelstein, accusing her of “Jew hatred” over her anti-Zionist principles. Finkelstein is Jewish.

Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/jewish-professor-fired-anti-zionist-posts

Your gift supports The Electronic Intifada's independent journalism on Palestine:
• Donate by credit card or PayPal via Network for Good: https://bit.ly/GivetoEI
• Donate by credit card, ApplePay or US bank account via Kindful: https://bit.ly/EIKindful

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐚𝐝𝐚

Visit our website for more reporting: http://electronicintifada.net

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheElectronicIntifada
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/electronicintifada
Twitter: https://twitter.com/intifada
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/electronicintifada/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/intifada
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7g2IMlNS5SFPmj86cfXg4V
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-electronic-intifada-podcast/id972399937