Israel critic voted out

American academic Norman Finkelstein has lost his battle for a lifelong post at DePaul University after a fierce row over his views on Israel.

The decision was made in a vote of four to three of the promotions and tenure board, following a campaign against the appointment by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.

Finkelstein, the son of Jewish Holocaust survivors, is a political scientist who has argued that accusations of anti-Semitism are used to dampen criticism of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians, and that the Holocaust has been exploited for pro-Israel political ends.