Head to Head

Time to boycott Israel?

Author and activist Norman Finkelstein discusses whether the two-state solution can solve the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“Prospects have never been better for settling the Israel-Palestine conflict,” argues Norman Finkelstein, the controversial scholar and author of The Holocaust Industry and Method and Madness. 

But after more violence, yet another round of failed talks and 20 years of Israeli land annexation, is the two-state solution really still an option?

If the two-state settlement … is 'Wizard of Oz stuff', then one-state is 'Man on the Moon stuff'.

by Norman Finkelstein

In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Norman Finkelstein on his proposal for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict, and explores whether he has changed his tone on some of his more incendiary criticism of Israel.

Once described as an ‘American Radical’, Finkelstein has also been branded by some a liberal Zionist, for his opposition to the one-state solution and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which he vehemently describes as “a cult.”

But does the BDS movement violate international law, and does it really aim to dismantle the Israeli state?

Joining the discussion are Salma Karmi-Ayyoub, a leading Palestinian activist and human rights lawyer in London; Jeff Halper, the director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions in Jerusalem; and Oliver Kamm, a writer and journalist at The Times and The Jewish Chronicle newspapers, and outspoken supporter of Israel.

Norman Finkelstein photo courtesy of Don J. Usner

To watch this episode on Youtube click here 

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Time to Boycott Israel?  with Norman Finkelstein will be broadcast on Friday, December 12 at 2000GMT and will be repeated on Saturday, November 15 at 1200GMT; Sunday, November 16 at 0100GMT; and Monday, November 17 at 0600GMT.

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