Professor Finkelstein loses tenure after charging Israel with "killing its own people"
The professor has since gone on a publicity blitz, speaking to media like Electronic Intifada
A tenured professor at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania has been fired after making numerous antisemitic and anti-Zionist remarks. At least eight Jewish students complained to the university, stating that her rhetoric made them feel unsafe.
Maura Finkelstein, not to be confused with Norman G. Finkelstein although their anti-Israel politics are similar, first faced scrutiny after a student who followed her on Instagram noticed her reposting negative memes about Zionism.
“Do not cower to Zionists. Shame them. Do not welcome them in your spaces. Why should these genocide loving fascists be treated any different than any other flat out racist,” she posted.
At least eight students lodged formal complaints. The Department of Education (DOE) intervened and launched an investigation. Many news outlets have noted that Finkelstein was seen entering the campus Hillel and photographing a fundraising table for “the war effort in Israel” for unexplained reasons.
While other news outlets have only reported on that remark, Liberty Affair obtained and analyzed an internal DOE document that has not yet been publicly discussed.
One complaint described Finkelstein’s teaching as “biased” and “anti-Zionist.”
“I have her for [class]… When the news broke about the Hamas invasion of Israel, Maura Finkelstein sent out an email to her classes saying that American news is biased and to read/watch the news sources she sent to us in order to understand the conflict going on in Israel.
“As a Zionist and American Jew planning to move to Israel and become a citizen, I felt beyond uncomfortable and was too anxious to even go to class. We spent almost the whole class discussing the topic and almost no time on class material,” one student said.
In another report, a student saw the picture Finkelstein took at the campus Hillel. Then her motives became clear.
“Students raising money for genocide. Grief won’t be extinguished by revenge-ceasefire now; stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, never again means never again for ANYONE!” she posted on Instagram, according to the DOE.
Since she taught in the same building as the Hillel building, many Jewish students started feeling uncomfortable as her antics and rhetoric became more well-known on campus.
One student explained that “…many of the students in Hillel were profoundly affected by the ongoing conflict and the professor’s post created the perception of a direct targeting of the Jewish community on campus,” per a third report.
After being brought into a meeting with the school director and provost, Finkelstein also expressed that she was “heartbroken that Hillel is so powerful on our campus.”
Hillel is the largest Jewish student campus organization in the world. Over 850 Hillel chapters are active across the United States, and the organization provides funding, speakers and often a physical space on campus for students to enjoy kosher meals.
Another complainant cited Finkelstein’s post on X, where she claimed that “Israel does not have a right to defend its occupation.” One student argued that her remarks showed “disgusting support for Hamas terrorists.”
Finkelstein’s colleagues also raised concerns about her rhetoric. According to internal reports, she claimed that “Israel is killing its own people” and endorsed calls to “globalize the intifada.”
In another instance, Finkelstein stated that Zionists should be “shamed” and should “not be welcome[d] into your spaces.”
Ultimately, Finkelstein was fired, but this appears to have only strengthened her convictions. In an article published in August 2024, she explained her refusal to support Vice President Kamala Harris, citing what she called “genocidal policies.”
“If Harris wants the progressive vote, she has to support an arms embargo on Israel and stop funding the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. This is a red line for many of us who have not bought into her liberal cult of personality. But Harris doesn’t want to engage these very reasonable demands – to stop funding this slaughter, this genocide, this horrific violence,” Finkelstein wrote, reiterating the claim that Israel is allegedly a genocidal, war-mongering country.
Jewish Voice for Peace, a far-left organization that advocates for Palestinian causes, condemned the college for firing the professor. In fact, she was the first tenured professor to lose her position for rhetoric on Israel.
To understand JVP’s stance, they argue that Israel “privileges Jews at the expense of non-Jews, which is to say, in short, a Jewish supremacist state.” They also claim that “the intellectually dishonest claim that opposition to Zionism is ‘antisemitic’ is nothing more than a pretext for stifling criticisms of Zionism.”
Maura Finkelstein did not respond to a request for comment. Her most recent publication, “Palestine Pedagogies: Teaching in a Time of Genocide,” was released three weeks ago.
“Despite my college’s actions, or maybe because of them, the past year has made one thing abundantly clear to me—every single anthropology professor should be teaching about Palestine now,” she writes.
“We must learn from our students, whose encampments are making history… If every anthropology professor… went into their classrooms this fall and devoted the year to teaching the work of Palestinian scholars and scholars of Palestine, we could help change the discourse around Palestine, Israeli settler colonialism, and the genocide in Gaza,” she said.
In a recent interview with Electronic Intifada, published to Youtube last Monday, Finkelstein elaborated on her views about Jewish students on campus, after her falling out with the university.
“Jews who identify as Zionists are partnering with very antisemitic political and economic bodies that are using them to undermine equity initiatives on campus. This is part of a larger playbook we’ve seen for decades,” she claimed.
Finkelstein is appealing her termination under Muhlenberg College’s Faculty Handbook procedures for termination for just cause, according to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
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You have to wonder how Muhlenberg hired someone like this in the first place.
A self-hating Jew if there ever was one.