Opion piece was offensive and anti-democratic

Dear Editor,

Last week’s editorial by Tim McSorley argued that students had every right to block Netanyahu, then it ends by supporting Norman Finkelstein as a beacon of moderation.

Netanyahu had every right to speak at Concordia, and those violent yahoos who made fools of themselves and their cause had every right to protest. But saying that he should be “blocked” encourages violence, is anti-democratic and ensures that any speaker who is not of a certain viewpoint should not be allowed to speak.

Meanwhile, Norman Finkelstein, who was invited by the CSU with our money, is not an impartial academic but a self-proclaimed anti-Zionist who is quoted consistenly by Holocaust-deniers. Finkelstein claims, in academic foilage, that there is a Jewish conspiracy to exploit the Holocaust to gain money from Europe and deny criticism of Israel. When the New York Times reviewed his book they referred to it as a new version of the antisemitic forgery the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

McSorley argued that we should block Netanyahu but listen to Finkelstein. This leads me to one of two conclusions: Either the Concordian has simply become anti-democratic or antisemitic, and after the events of last week and the response from our student leadership, neither conclusion is terribly suprising.

Karen Pearlman
History, Philosophy

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