Norman Finkelstein (center), an outspoken academic on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, sits down for tea with visitors of the Islamic House of Wisdom after a speech he gave there on Sept. 26. Finkelstein sat with local activists until well after midnight.

One YouTube video cuts back and forth between clips of Finkelstein debating pro-Israel Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz and snippets of Bruce Lee kicking butt in a martial arts film.

Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul in June 2007, and placed on administrative leave for the 2007-2008 academic year as a result of political opposition to his speaking out about the Israel-Palestine conflict. He resigned in September, 2007 after reaching a settlement with the University. As part of the settlement DePaul issued a statement that described Finkelstein as a “prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher.”

He gave pro-Palestinian activists a fairly optimistic picture of the state of their struggle in his address last week.

“Things have significantly changed in the United States for the better,” he said. “It’s becoming increasing difficult to support Israel. Too much is now known.”

He said public opinion polls show declining  suppport among Americans, including Jewish Americans, for Israeli policy and increasing support for even-handed US policy.

Finkelstein said that over time, more and more facts about treatment of the Palestinians have come out into the open.

Between 1987 and 1993, 20-30,000 Palestinian detainees were tortured by Israeli authorities, he said.

At that point, “Israeli human rights organizations began to denounce Israel’s human rights record.”

Before that, Finkelstein said, mainstream international human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch feared losing funding from groups who would label them anti-semetic if they released reports that were critical of Israel. Now, they could simply cite Israeli reports of violations.

As more snowballing revelations have materialized with time, he said, the historical record has become clearer, the human rights record is now clearer and the parameters to resolve the conflict are now clearer.

Finkelstein spoke in response to what he said was the most common question posed to him during his trip to the Detroit area: What can we do?

He said mobilizing and organizing is a time-consuming, tiring task, but “You have to have a wilingess to sacrifice if you want to have a just cause succeed.”

He said that getting bogged down in ideological rhetoric rather than facts when debating and publicizing the issue, is the wrong way to make use of mobilized, organized activist energy.

“That’s exactly what the other side wants. To get involved in abstract, ideological struggle and not confront the facts,” he said. “Don’t ask people ‘Are you a zionist?’ Ask ‘Do you suport house demolitions? Do you support Jewish-only, illegal settlements? Do you support Jews-only road systems…”

He said it’s also essential to know the facts about the official positions of the United Nations, International Court and other international organizations on the conflict.

“All the mainstream human rights organizations have said, unequivocally, ‘The Palestinian refugees have the right to return,'” he said.

Both the UN and the International Court of Justice, he said, have ruled that: 1- Israel has no title to the West Bank or Gaza, 2- East Jerusalem is “occupied Palestinian territory,” 3- Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal and 4- Palestinian refugees have the right to return to the lands they were removed from.

“They are very powerful weapons if you learn how to use them,” he said of those facts.

“The zionist movement made sure everyone knew about the Balfour Declaration and the (UN) partition resolution… Our side does nothing. We have weapons as powerful as the Balfour declaration and the partition resolution.”

The International Court, he said, voted 14-1 on those issues.

“It was not even close.”

And in voting on the same issues every year in the UN, “It’s the whole world on one side and the U.S., Israel and five little islands in the South Pacific on the other.”

“It’s now very difficult to defend Israeli policy in public so the support for Israel is rapidly declining,” Finkelstein said.