Clark speaker: Israel provoked war; Controversial call for Palestinian peace pact.

Byline: Lee Hammel

WORCESTER - Norman Finkelstein did not disappoint anyone hoping to hear views strong enough to cause the president of Clark University to ban him from the campus while a Holocaust conference was being held there last week.

Last night, Mr. Finkelstein described Israel as deliberately provoking a war with the Palestinians in Gaza in December to redeem itself after a humiliating defeat in Lebanon in 2006. Except that Mr. Finkelstein described it not as a war, but a massacre.

Speaking in front of the red, black, white and green Palestinian flag, he spoke to about 400 people in Atwood Hall at a forum arranged by Clark University Students for Palestinian Rights. And he opened by thanking Clark President John Bassett, saying that few university presidents are willing to acknowledge error.

Mr. Bassett said he had been trying to balance "free inquiry" on campus and "common courtesy" to speakers at a Holocaust conference when he put off a speech by Mr. Finkelstein, who himself is the son of Holocaust survivors.

Mr. Bassett acknowledged that he should have consulted the student organization before announcing his decision. He added there was no need to put off the speech until next academic year, and he allowed the talk last night.

Mr. Finkelstein said it was impossible to describe Israeli army actions between Dec. 27 and Jan. 18 as a war because, he said, there was not a single battle. Instead there were 3,000 combat missions by helicopters and jet planes and the use of phosphorous weapons that ignited to 1,500 degree Fahrenheit. He said the "blood bath" produced 1,417 Palestinian deaths, 83 percent of them civilians and 313 of them children.

The Israelis, he said, suffered 13 killed, three of them civilians. He said half of the 10 Israeli combatant deaths resulted from friendly fire.

The speaker dismissed any justification of the Israeli military operation because of Palestinians attacking Israeli civilians with rockets leading up to the operation. He said that while 31 Israelis -21 of them civilians - were killed by rockets from Palestinians, Israelis killed 455 Palestinians, at least 175 of them non-combatants, in the days before the invasion of Gaza.

Mr. Finkelstein called on the Israelis to accept terms for a peace settlement that he said even Hamas has said it would accept. He said that settlement, overwhelmingly backed by the United Nations, calls for a two-state solution with the Israelis returning the territory won in the 1967 war - East Jerusalem, all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - and allow refugees the right of return to Israel.

Mr. Finkelstein said the invasion of Gaza was designed to weaken moderate elements in the Palestinian territories because the Jewish nation does not want to negotiate and give up territory. He also asserted that Israel is deliberately acting like a "mad dog" in a civilian area to restore fear to Arabs, who saw Israel routed from Lebanon and then defeated when it returned in 2006.

After being denied tenure at DePaul University in Chicago and resigning in 2007, Mr. Finkelstein has been on the professional speaking circuit. Mr. Finkelstein posted a letter on his Web site explaining school officials' reasons for denying him tenure, including his "deliberately hurtful" scholarship, lack of involvement with the school, and public clashes with other scholars.

He promised last night to avoid the type of language that he has been accused of using, but could not resist to referring to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman as trying to avoid looking like "a straight-out Nazi" even though he is one while justifying Israeli military operations.

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Norman Finkelstein speaks at Clark University last night.

PHOTOG: T&G Staff/CHRISTINE PETERSON