http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/987465.html
Last update - 09:34 27/05/2008
Who's afraid of Finkelstein?
By Haaretz Editorial
Tags: Israel, Norman Finkelstein
On Friday morning,
the State of Israel refused to allow
Prof. Norman Finkelstein,
an American Jewish
political scientist,
to enter the country.
Finkelstein was arrested at the air****t
and questioned by the ****n Bet security
service for several hours.
A day later,
it became known that he had been
banned from entering Israel for
10 years, for security reasons.
Finkelstein managed to meet with a lawyer,
who told him his chances of changing
the decision were slim.
When the ****n Bet decides that
someone constitutes a security risk,
the courts do not intervene.
According to the law,
both in Israel and in other countries,
no one has an intrinsic right to enter
a country of which he is not a citizen.
Immigration authorities have the power
to keep a tourist from entering the
country for reasons known only to
themselves,
and do not even need to
provide an explanation.
In Finkelstein's case,
the disturbing issue is neither
the legality of keeping him out
nor the authority to do so,
but the reasonableness of the decision.
Considering his unusual
and extremely critical views,
one cannot avoid the suspicion
that refusing to allow
him to enter Israel was
a punishment rather than
a precaution.
It is difficult to sympathize with
Finkelstein's opinions and preferences,
especially since he decided to sup****t
Hezbollah,
meet with its fighters and visit
the graves of some of its slain
operatives.
But that does not mean he should
be banned from entering Israel,
since meetings with Hezbollah
operatives do not in themselves
constitute a security risk.
True, the right to enter Israel
is not guaranteed to noncitizens,
but the right of Israeli citizens
to hear unusual views is one that
should be fought for.
It is not for the government to
decide which views should be heard
here and which ones should not.
The decision to ban Finkelstein
hurts us more than it hurts him.
Every once in a while,
the state suffers an attack
of excessive sensitivity
regarding its visitors.
In 2002,
it was Romanian flautist Gheorghe Zamfir
who was kept out of the country by the
Interior Ministry.
The interior minister at the time, Eli Yishai,
explained that Zamfir had expressed
anti-Semitic views and that his entry
into Israel would "hurt Holocaust survivors."
Avraham ****az,
who succeeded Yishai,
overturned the decision.
When the person refused entry is Jewish,
the absurdity is even greater.
After all,
Finkelstein could realize his
right to immigrate to Israel
as a Jew,
in accordance with the Law of Return.
Since he is Jewish
and has no criminal past,
it is doubtful whether
he could be prevented
from receiving Israeli
citizen****p.
The ****n Bet argues that
Finkelstein constitutes
a security risk.
But it is more reasonable to
assume that Finkelstein is
persona non grata and that
the ****n Bet,
whose influence has increased
to frightening pro****tions,
latched onto his meetings with
Hezbollah operatives in order
to punish him.
And the decision is all the more
surprising when one recalls the
ease with which right-wing activists
from the Meir Kahane camp -
the kind whose activities pose
a security threat that no longer
requires further proof -
are able to enter the country.
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