The Holocaust Industry by Norman G. Finkelstein

The dispute has roots that go deeper still, with Mr Finkelstein devoting much of his most recent book, Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History to an attack on Mr Dershowitz's own work, the Case for Israel. Soon after Mr Finkelstein applied for it, Mr Dershowitz sent DePaul faculty members a dossier of what he categorised as the 'most egregious academic sins, outright lies, misquotations, and distortions' of the political scientist. His most bitter opponent is Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor, who campaigned heavily to prevent tenure being granted. Intellectuals such as the prolific writer Noam Chomsky and the Oxford historian Avi Shlaim have spoken out in Mr Finkelstein's favour, but others have decried him in equal measure as giving succour to anti-semitism. His position as a Jewish intellectual critical of Israel and of some elites within the Jewish community has prompted passionate debate on both sides.

Mr Finkelstein has argued in his books that claims of anti-semitism are used to dampen down criticism of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians and that the Holocaust is exploited by some Jewish institutions for their own gain. The decision came at the end of several months of wrangling, both within the Catholic university and within the wider academic and Jewish communities in the US. He lost his bid for a lifelong post after a four to three vote of the promotions and tenure board. Norman Finkelstein, author of The Holocaust Industry, now has less than a year remaining on his contract with the political sciences department of DePaul University in Chicago. One of the most rancorous disputes in American academia has ended with a prominent political scientist with controversial views on Israel and anti-semitism being denied tenure at one of the country's largest universities.

The Holocaust Industry by Norman G. Finkelstein