Pennsylvania professor fired for opposing Gaza genocide

Anthropology professor Maura Finkelstein was fired from her position at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in May. This was the culmination of a campaign against the professor launched by Zionists outside the college and the Biden-Harris Department of Education, calling her “anti-Israel.” Activism – Social media posts she made against the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

She was suspended in January after the spring academic semester had already begun, leaving her students suddenly without their professor.

Finkelstein, who is Jewish, is believed to have been the first full faculty member to be fired for constitutionally protected free speech against the Israeli genocide – in her case, this speech took place outside in the classroom, trampling on both their academic freedom and their basic democratic rights.

Her removal is intended to intimidate and silence all those who oppose American imperialism and the crimes of its Israeli proxy. It is part of a purge of America’s colleges and universities and an attack on the democratic rights of students and faculty led by the Biden-Harris administration.

Finkelstein is the author of the book The Archive of Loss: Vivid Destruction in Mill Land Mumbaipublished by Duke University Press in 2019, which focuses on the lives of workers in a deindustrialized city in India and contains a number of academic articles, reviews and essays. Muhlenberg College has not objected to her scholarship, teaching, or service to the institution, which forms the basis of her academic employment. She was a tenured professor with the title of associate professor of anthropology.

Last week, on September 24, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) sent a letter to Muhlenberg College President Kathleen Harring stating that it was conducting an investigation into the firing of Finkelstein because of her pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist views will initiate.

Finkelstein began speaking publicly against Israel’s policies shortly after the Hamas uprising on October 7, 2023. She quickly became the target of Zionist harassment. In response to her open criticism of Israel, a petition was launched on Change.org by right-wing Muhlenberg alumni on October 29, 2023, calling for her removal. The petition was promoted by Israeli genocide advocates who equate any opposition with anti-Semitism.

The Change.org petition accused Finkelstein of “horrific acts.” The three crimes she was charged with were “1. Glorification of Hamas, the terrorists and denigration of Israel: [sic]2. Classroom bias, hate speech and targeted aggression against Jewish students, 3. Cyberbullying of students with their partner.”