New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D - Brooklyn) reacted angrily to the news that the Brooklyn Public Library would host a lecture by anti-Israel activist and Hezbollah supporter Norman Finkelstein.
Finkelstein’s “No Free Speech for Fascists” lecture series at the library may be funded by the municipality.
“It’s no secret that Norman Finkelstein is a despicable, self-hating Jew who has made sickening, dangerous statements like ‘We are all Hezbollah,’” said Hikind. “The question is why would the Brooklyn Public Library allow this vile propagandist to use their facilities to spread his hate to the public? Is the Library also using New Yorkers’ tax dollars to pay this individual? Are they allowing children to attend this hateful lecture series? Will they allow the heads of the KKK and Neo-Nazi party to lecture at the library next?”
“Hardly a day goes by without a bomb threat to a Jewish center filled with preschoolers and the elderly,” Hikind continued. “Every week, there’s a swastika painted, or a cemetery attacked in the middle of the night. That’s the current reality. And what is the Brooklyn Public Library’s response? To host a modern-day Goebbels who makes excuses for terrorism and denies the extent of the Holocaust. That’s shameful!”
Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul University and placed on academic leave for a year following his statements supporting terrorism and accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust.
“DePaul University and Israeli authorities understood that espousing hatred leads to violence,” said Hikind. “The last thing we need in Brooklyn right now is someone who expresses solidarity with Hamas and Hezbollah under the guise of ‘academia’ stirring the pot of racial hatred.”