Norman Finkelstein at UMass: The Past, Present, and Future of Gaza

By James Angell and Norah Stewart

The following article appeared originally in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian on October 1, 2025, and is reposted here with permission of the authors.

Norman Finkelstein, political scientist and activist, delivered a sold-out lecture titled ‘Gaza: Past, Present, Future’ at the Bowker auditorium at the University of Massachusetts on September 24, his first on-campus university appearance since October 7, 2023.

The talk came just before the two-year mark of the Israel-Gaza conflict, which has resulted in 66,005 confirmed deaths. Due to the destruction of their healthcare system, that number is likely even higher.

According to Finkelstein, over 50 million tons of rubble is currently covering Gaza, which will take until around 2050 to remove, adding, “[It’s pretty] obvious that something horrible is unfolding in real time before our eyes,” Finkelstein said.

Finkelstein, born to Holocaust survivors, graduated from Binghamton University and earned his PhD from Princeton University. Finkelstein has been researching Palestine since 1982 and is the author of 13 books with his 14th set to be released on November 25, 2025.

Professor of Communications Sut Jhally opened for Finkelstein. He emphasized how Finkelstein’s career has been victim “of unrelenting attack and lies.”

In 2008, Finkelstein was denied tenure at the DePaul University in Chicago, with the school’s administration calling him uncivil.

Jhally illustrated the need for controversial scholars like Finkelstein, saying “Truth is all we have…Hold onto the truth.”

Finkelstein started his talk by discussing the region’s past, specifically when the nation-state of Israel was founded in 1948. Finkelstein also said that this was when Gaza became Gaza.

May 15, 1948, marked the start of the first Arab-Israeli war, which saw around 750,000 Palestinians displaced, and according to Finkelstein, about 280,000 were forced into the Gaza Strip. He noted how this beginning made those in Gaza a refugee population.

He said that after this war, Gaza came under Egyptian rule, and it wasn’t until 1967 — after the third Arab-Israeli War — that Israel controlled Gaza.

According to Finkelstein, Israeli actions from 1948 until now should be considered a genocide, reciting, “the beginning of all wisdom is to correctly name things,” quoting Confucius.

“If you start from the framework that Israel is waging a war, even if acknowledging there have been deviations from the targeting of the military, you’re still, in essence, saying Israel’s target is its adversaries’ military,” Finkelstein said.

Finkelstein drew the audience’s attention to the current manmade famine in Gaza. He said that this treatment isn’t new, citing Israel’s Head of National Security Council, Giora Eiland, who described Gaza as a “huge concentration camp.”

Israel insists on having withdrawn from Gaza in August of 2005 but only did so to the perimeter of the city, which they subsequently shut, according to Finkelstein. He continued to detail how Israel determined who was allowed to enter and exit. He likened Israel’s blockade in Gaza to “slamming the prison door shut.”

Finkelstein stressed that before October 7, 2023, Hamas tried to seek a diplomatic resolution through international law. Yet, Israel rejected Hamas’ attempts of diplomacy numerous times, providing the examples of the proposed peace talks of 1988, 1997 and 2004.

“In each and every instance Israel refused to cooperate,” Finkelstein said.

Finkelstein detailed America’s view of democracy by explaining how President George W. Bush called for democratic elections in Palestine. He added that Hamas originally did not want to participate in the elections but ended up running on the platform of reform.

Hamas won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council, winning the 2006 election, according to Finkelstein. He said that Hamas’ victory came as a major surprise to the American and Israeli governments, who tried to interfere in the election by attempting to sway voters from Hamas through funding the opposing party.

He recited former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s comment on Hamas’ win, “the U.S. government made a big mistake by letting them win the election.”

As a result of Hamas’ win, heavy sanctions were imposed on Gaza by the U.S and Israel.

Finkelstein illustrated the response to these sanctions, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, a coalition of six ships manned by around 600 activists. The group sent 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to try to reach Gaza, but the Israeli Defense Forces intercepted the flotilla, killing 10 Turkish activists on board.

He continued to discuss the brutality Israel enforced on those in Gaza by detailing the Israeli military metaphor of “Mowing of the Lawn” which, in his words were “high tech killing sprees.”

Finkelstein referenced Peter Maurer, the former President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who saw the aftermath of the Operation Protective Edge and said, “in all of my life I have never seen destruction like I saw in Gaza.”

Finkelstein also mentioned the example of the Great March of Return, which was a mass nonviolent resistance movement that called for an end to the Israeli blockade. It was a mainly festive event with circus acts, music, dancing and picnics.

The resistance ended when the Israeli Security Forces (ISF) raided and killed 223 Palestinians. Finkelstein called attention to the ISF’s target of toddlers. “T-O-D-D-L-E-R-S,” he spelled out, citing a United Nations (UN) report that found Israeli snipers shot the children intentionally.

Then, Finkelstein turned to the events of October 7, 2023. He addressed the audience and turned their attention to the fact that most people in the room were the same age as those who “burst the gates” almost two years ago.

He said that what occurred that day was terrible, but it was a moral question, saying “There is no denial whether October 7 happened: it happened…[But] I won’t condemn the perpetrators.”

Concluding the talk, Finkelstein took the time to comment about free speech on college campuses.

He implored the audience to “find the courage” to reclaim their right to free speech and stressed the “university’s sanctity as a place of academic freedom.”

Anna Joliffe, a UMass alumna who traveled across towns to be at the lecture with her husband, echoed his sentiments. “It’s going to take everyone’s voice to defend [our liberties] as best we can,” she said.

“It’s not my future anymore, it’s your future,” Finkelstein said before opening the floor to audience Q&A.