Troubling Case of an Anthropology Professor Fired for Pro-Palestinian Speech

Maura Finkelstein (left) was, until recently, a tenured anthropology professor at Muhlenberg College. She is Jewish, but she is also fierce critic of Israel and a supporter of Palestinians. Her Twitter and BlueSky accounts are about little else. As far as I can tell, her scholarship is about other things, but she taught courses at Muhlenberg College on Palestine, so her commitment to Palestine did not prevent her advancement, even at a college whose student body is 30% Jewish.

According to Ryan Quinn, writing for Inside Higher Education, in May, Professor Finkelstein became the first professor to be fired for pro-Palestinian speech since October 7th. She is appealing the decision and is still being paid by the College. The speech occurred on Professor Finkelstein’s Instagram page in January. She reposted the following statement by a Palestinian poet:

Do not cower to Zionists. Shame them. Do not welcome them in your spaces. Why should these genocide loving fascists be treated any different than any other flat out racist. Don’t normalize Zionism. Don’t normalize Zionists taking up space.

There seems to have been a coordinated campaign against Professor Finkelstein. The College came under pressure from multiple directions. A complaint, referencing Professor Finkelstein, was filed against the College with the Department of Education. The College and media outlets were deluged with thousands of automated e-mails about Professor Finkelstein.  What the reporting thus far does not reveal is any evidence of student dissatisfaction with Professor Finkelstein or her teaching. She awaits a hearing on her appeal. The College won’t talk about personnel matters. nor will any of the faculty members who recommended firing Professor Finkelstein comment. None of that is surprising.

Muhlenberg College, by Duempel, CC BY-SA 3.0 

The AAUP is alarmed, and Graham Piro, the faculty legal defense fund fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, calls Professor Finkelstein’s firing “extremely disturbing.” So far, everyone is talking about academic freedom, but nobody is addressing the role of contracts in securing such freedom. We really have some work to do getting language into faculty handbooks that expressly acknowledges contractual elements of tenure and provides real-world protections for faculty members who speak their mind in ways that their colleagues find alarming or off-putting.

I am not a “I do not like what you say but I will fight to the death for the right to say it” person.  I don’t think it factually accurate to imply that all Zionists are genocide-loving fascists. I don’t think responsible adults, let alone faculty members, should promote such views. I will not fight to the death for Professor Finkelstein’s right to do so. But if having tenure confers on faculty members significant freedom to speak their minds, especially when one does so outside of the context of one’s professional responsibilities, then those rights ought to be protected in the manner of any other rights that arise through private legislation.