Mapping an argument

Norman Finkelstein, controversial scholar of Zionism and professor of political science at DePaul University, lectured on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a packed lecture hall in the Sociology-Psychology Building last night. Over 200 students, faculty and community members attended, many of them sitting in aisles or standing against walls.

Himself a Jew and son of Holocaust survivors, Finkelstein used historical background of the founding of Israel, as well as descriptions of the living conditions of present-day Palestinians, to sharply criticize Israel's treatment of Palestinians. He advocated an Israeli withdrawal of territories it gained in the 1967 Six-Day War against its Arab neighbors, and condemned the use of the Holocaust to justify the existence of Israel.

Audience members seemed evenly split between the conflict's two factions, and a tense but subdued question-and-answer period followed Finkelstein's speech.