What a load of dreck!

Iosif Kobzon – a famous romance, folk and jazz singer from Russia has been denied an entry visa to US to perform a series of concerts before a Jewish audience of Russian decent. Beloved by millions of fans across mother-russia he is a huge public figure and also a good jew. Many requests to reverse the decision of US DOS were declined without further explanation. Mind that human-rights lawyers involved in that case were of a much bigger caliber than an esteemed Y-net author. The bastion of freedom of the world does not oblige itself to explain a logic behind its decision making process. So must not Israeli authorities. BTY it was before 9-11.

When he was interviewed on Lebanese TV, he gave such a ringing endorsement of Hizbullah, that the Lebanese interviewer was forced to chastise him for interfering in the internal affairs of the Lebanese. Finkelstein has also engaged in various forms of Holocaust denial. This is not freedom of speech, this is incitement, and in Israel there are laws against it. Oded Feller ridicules China for practising such forms of censorship, yet China seems to have survived for thousands of years with their program, while other civilizations and cultures came and went. Enough tragedies have befallen the Jewish people on Tisha b'Av for us to resist falling for self-defeating advice yet another time.

on the grounds that Meyer Lansky was a threat to public security. Meyer Lansky was a great benefactor of Jewish causes, and a great supporter of Israel, but happened to be affiliated with the Mafia. Finkelstein, by contrast, has met with and endorsed the activities of Hizbullah, and he is on record, Mr. Feller, on record, as saying that "ISRAEL MUST SUFFER A DEFEAT" at the hands of Hizbullah in a new round of fighting. This man can walk the entire Earth spewing such incitement, EXCEPT in Israel.

This useful idiot has met with terrorists and as such, should not be allowed into the very country they have sworn to destroy. If he was an Israeli citizen, he would have been arrested. Why should he be allowed to freely travel in Israel just because he's from the US.

He is actively fighting Israel on the ideological and PR fronts. Why should Israel, a country at war, let in enemies from outside? God knows, there are plenty of them inside already. In addition the despicable person also is an apostate and should be treated as such. In good old times a contemptible apostate like this would be stoned to death. Sometimes one yearns for the moral clarity and conviction of our ancestors. That was before the curse of political correctness has spread like a plaque...

Norman Frankenstein is a traitor, and should be treated as such.

What about Nadia Matar, you little fascist weenie?

You cannot compare China's critics to people that defame the Holocaust and are such antisemites attacking Israel as Finkelstein does. Israel did the right thing. ARE 6 MILLION PEOPLE MURDERED NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU MR. FELLER?. If one third of the Jewish people were killed, that means that every average family with three members would have lost one of its members. All Jewish families suffered, EVEN YOURS YOU FOOL! For the sake of their memory, Jews should not have to hear imbecilic garbage from Finkelstein's and other people like him.

Would we allow Nasrallah, Bin Laden, Ahmadinejad, or any other one of these leaders into Israel? No. This man hates the Jewish State, and maybe even the Jewish people. But actually, maybe letting him in would show that we are a true democracy!

The brainwashed Israeli knows nothing and understands less. Why Norman Finkelstein would want to waste his time talking to those dummies is beyond me. You only have to read the claptrap in the YNET talkback pages to realize you are not dealing with anything intelligent.

Psyco jew-hater have nothing to do in Israel. Let him go to Iran to be with his buddies. US does not respect "freedom of speech". Jewish activists, like Avigdor Eskin & Baruch Marzel are not allowed in US to speak tours. Eskin was kept handcuffed overnight to a high chair. That's their "freedom".

This article is shot full of logical errors on many levels. You trivialize everything Finkelstein does and did. He was not tossed out of Israel for insulting, outrageous, or views outside the consensus. He met with Hezbollah, a military machine at war with Israel and dedicated to the country's destruction. ..Israel is not China. Israel is a small country with a small population, surrounded by enemies, including those within, and actually openly threatened with extinction by one(Iran). China, with maybe one-billion Han Chinese,will always exist, even if Tibet with fewer than 10 million people, won its independence tomorrow. Tibet does not question the existence of China. You know, there is a worldwide propaganda campaign against Israel. We had to put up with an Amira Hass(Haaretz) speech in this state - who has gone over completely to the other side. What do unknowledgeable non-Jews think when they hear a speech like this from a Jew? This is a battle of ideas Israel can ill afford to lose. Under conditions like these, tolerance has its limits. There is plenty of free speech in Israel. Recognize your survival is at stake, and plant your flag deeper into the soil.

I'd let monster in, only after he undergoes a thorough, complete, and open psychological exam. What is the source of his bile? It would be interesting to know.

should go either go to Chechnya or Hell - whatever is worse.

freedom of speech advocates in Israel, and here in America, and in all western countries accept the no yelling fire in a croweded building that isn't burning, exception to free speech. They accept it without understanding why; the answer they don't know is that yelling fire when there's no fire is an act that causes panic and stampede and in short hurts peopole. The same goes for Mr. Finklstein's speech; his words are designed to turn world opinion against Israel and force it to make concessions to its enemies that will then lead to an increase in deadly attacks against Israeli civilians and potentially Israel's destruction. Finklestein is obviously hostile to Israel, and the above-mentioned consequences of his words make them acts of war against Israel, which means that his words ARE NOT PROTECTED. by the way just because Mr. Finklestein wishes everybody all the best and doesn't think the last two consequences of his words will occur, or want them to doesn't mean that they won't happen, it just means he's a shortsighted, idealist.

what it says here. At what point are a persons talks libelous and slanderous against an entire people? He is not an Israeli citizen, and he is not entitled to their rights. He is an ardent publicity hound who can't get attention any other way. His academic products were found quite lacking. He also cast doubt on many well established facts about the Holocaust. THIS ARTICLES WRITER CHOSE TO IGNORE THAT. Even the Catholic University DePaul in Chicago knew what to do with him. THEY SHOWED HIM THE DOOR. So why do we have to give him a stage? This is not about "freedom of speech", but the freedom of facts from libel and slander."

But any country has a right to choose who can enter its borders. He can speak elsewhere, and he had been doing it in Lebanon and Iran. It is not an issue of freedom of speech; it is about the platform of speaking. Good decision.

my admiration to a courageous editor who stood up against opresive bahavior. afterall prof finkelstein is the son of a haulocost survivors nobody is more eligible to visit israel than him 'people like him and y ahronot show th real values of judaism and make every body respect us including our enemies

utmost respect to mr feller

RIGHT TO DENY ENTRY is a right 'every Nation' has the freedom to do so long as the person trying to enter is NOT a citizen

It's no surprise that this rubbish comes from the ACRI, who never met an Israeli critic it couldn't love. Israel doesn't need to provide him a platform, or access to fellow travelers within Israel. Finkelstein, who has been dismissed from three institutions, makes his living as a critic of Israel through his books and on the road appearances at anti-Israel conferences. This is not censorship. Anyone who wants to access this hack's views can go to a local bookshop or access his writings on the web. None of that is blocked. So don't compare Israel to China.

Oded Feller is obviously one of the learned fools. He doesn't have a clue and his writing exposes him as a non-thinker. When he declares that the traitor Finklestein doesn't carry explosives (and is therefore not dangerous or a security concern), he shows his inability to think. The terrorist leaders and religious figures who brainwash the braindead suicide bombers also do not carry explosives. Yet without their inflammatory speech in the mosques and in their meeting places, the people wearing the explosive belts would not become suicde bombers. Hitler did not shoot Jews at Babi Yar so I guess that Feller also would not have considered him as a security threat or dangerous. If Feller wants to hear Finklestein's rants, he has the internet. He could also buy some of this monster's books. What next for Feller an d his Association for Civil Rights in Israel? Are they going to petition the government to allow supporters of pedophia ito Israel to hear their views?

As one of the last surviving Holocaust survivor from the Budapest ghetto let me say this: The self hatred and self flagellation of the Israeli media and various leftist vermin are reaching epidemic proportions. One cannot suppress nausea when taking a look at who are opening their mouth. I swear, not even the ghetto's kapos expressed on their own such a deference toward their murderers than these sucumbags. Finkelstein you are right: your hatred against these self hating Jews are justified. So is would be your stoning to ***

Israel needs security, not using precious resources to follow Jew self haters. Yes, freedom of speech is harmed, but he is not an Israeli citizen and security is much more important than a foreigner's right to show up in Israel, we have enough home grown haters that need to be dealt with.

Just because someone calls themselves a "peace and human rights activists" does not mean that is their behavior: Many who call themselves this actually support violence and even worse. In the same way, Finkelstein is more than a critic; he actively supports those who perpetuate violence, terror and worse, and he does not hide it. I would guess that the destruction of the state of Israel would thrill him immensely. He does not have a "right" to enter Israel or foment and support this sort of behavior, and it is up to the state authorities to evaluate whether to allow him to enter or not - which they have done. I wonder if the lawyer Feller can get beyond his political position as a member of the Association For Civil Rights to see this.

I strongly disagree with Oded Feller on this article. Norman Finkelstein is not a citizen of Israel nor is he a resident of Gaza or the West Bank. Israel has no obligation to let him into their country for any reason - and that doesn't reflect on the open nature of its society. The citizens of Israel are free to express their views - even at the risk of undoing their own stability. They can freely access any political material that reports an event, past or current that is not filtered for the nature of its objectivity. Finkelstein enjoys the rights and freedoms as an American to (freely) publish his views on the State of Israel. He claims that he had no interest in visiting Israel or spending a minute in the country - he was only trying to visit a friend in the West Bank. Regardless of his intentions, the State had the right to deny entry to a non citizen. He is also free to express his views on the United States Government. Should his scollarly focus have been the United States treatment of its Aboriginal people and their land claims, I'm sure that Canada and New Zealand would be opening their arms for him at their borders.