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Gaza's Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places
569 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 8, 2026
About the author
Norman G. Finkelstein
28 books1,921 followersNorman Gary Finkelstein, is an American political scientist and activist. His primary fields of research are the politics of the Holocaust and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Son of a holocaust survivor, Finkelstein is a fierce critic of Israeli policy, especially toward Palestinians. He has had a tense rivalry with his pro-Israel counterpart, Alan Dershowitz. In 2007 DePaul University denied his tenure, a decision for which Dershowitz lobbied. For his views and suspected connections to anti-Zionist groups, Israel has denied Finkelstein entry and banned him from the country for a decade.
Son of a holocaust survivor, Finkelstein is a fierce critic of Israeli policy, especially toward Palestinians. He has had a tense rivalry with his pro-Israel counterpart, Alan Dershowitz. In 2007 DePaul University denied his tenure, a decision for which Dershowitz lobbied. For his views and suspected connections to anti-Zionist groups, Israel has denied Finkelstein entry and banned him from the country for a decade.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 17, 2026
I received my copy early thanks to preordering from the publisher. It takes a lot of talent to make a book about international law interesting to the layperson. An ICJ judge plagiarizing material that cited pragerU was an instance that had my jaw drop while reading.
September 14, 2026
dismantling israeli propaganda and actual corruption within the international court system through real research - a book everyone should read if they want to have their facts straight about october 7 and this genocide
''This book was written to expose lies and restore Truth. It will not save lives. The genocide in Gaza is too far gone. Is the book then pointless? For the dead, yes. But for the living, no. The demand sounded in the book’s Prologue stands: not just the perpetrators in Israel but also their accomplices
in high places—blood-soaked, all—must be held accountable. Still, in light of the enormity that Israel has visited on Gaza, it would be meager recompense. But there’s something else. To live a life bereft of Truth and Justice even as aspirations would be unendurable. To reclaim Truth (even if it’s ignored) and to demand Justice be done (even if it’s in vain) are ultimately acts of “willing, or rather of choosing, . . . purely spiritual acts about which the laws of mechanics explain nothing” (Rousseau). It’s choosing the world one wants to live in and is prepared to sacrifice for. However futile the endeavor, however derisory the material results, the pursuit of Truth and Justice is its own reward. To surrender them without a fight is to relinquish one’s humanity.''
''This book was written to expose lies and restore Truth. It will not save lives. The genocide in Gaza is too far gone. Is the book then pointless? For the dead, yes. But for the living, no. The demand sounded in the book’s Prologue stands: not just the perpetrators in Israel but also their accomplices
in high places—blood-soaked, all—must be held accountable. Still, in light of the enormity that Israel has visited on Gaza, it would be meager recompense. But there’s something else. To live a life bereft of Truth and Justice even as aspirations would be unendurable. To reclaim Truth (even if it’s ignored) and to demand Justice be done (even if it’s in vain) are ultimately acts of “willing, or rather of choosing, . . . purely spiritual acts about which the laws of mechanics explain nothing” (Rousseau). It’s choosing the world one wants to live in and is prepared to sacrifice for. However futile the endeavor, however derisory the material results, the pursuit of Truth and Justice is its own reward. To surrender them without a fight is to relinquish one’s humanity.''
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
What else is there to say? Approaching three years of live-streamed genocide, I'm increasingly disillusioned by the idea that "the tide is turning" or "this time is different." Particularly as American voters are set to go to the polls in November and the complicity of our entire political class will be rewarded with continued power, the absence of even a shred of accountability is gut wrenching.
Norman Finkelstein has long made it his mission to meticulously, methodically, and pointedly dispute Israeli propaganda in the wake of its high-tech killing sprees in Gaza (perversely referred to by Israel as "mowing the lawn"). After Al-Aqsa Flood, the newest round of flinging-everything-against-the-wall-to-see-what-sticks produced grotesque images of mass rape, babies beheaded, and babies in ovens. There was just one problem: not one image existed. As Finkelstein shows in tremendous detail, the mass rape hoax was exactly that. Surely, having failed to provide a shred of evidence of any widespread or systemic sexual violence, our journalists and pundits have backed off such ludicrous defamatory claims? In fact, just yesterday, I watched Dana Bash on CNN say that Hasan Piker defended "sexual violence by Hamas terrorists". These people - our so-called journalists, our politicians - need to be removed from public life and eternally shunned. I see no other way. The gravity of a genocide should shake us to our core, but most all of the world has continued without missing a beat.
Of course, the function of such propaganda is that it has to survive long enough to establish the vocabulary through which subsequent events are discussed. Once “mass rape,” “beheaded babies,” etc. have done their political work, later evidentiary collapse does not receive anything resembling the publicity of the original accusation. The allegation becomes sedimented into conventional wisdom. The damage is done.
The presentation made by the South African delegation to the International Court of Justice on the case of a plausible genocide is equally enlightening in that it demonstrates not only the compromising of certain justices like Sebutinde, but also in the ways that the verdict can be so distorted if not altogether buried in the dustbin of history. How, pray tell, can provisional measures to protect the Palestinians from plausible violations of their protected rights in the genocide convention mean anything more or less than "Israel is plausibly committing genocide"? In a just and humane world, this would be plastered all over our newspapers and our nightly news programs. Instead, it merits no mention, or in the odd case where it's mentioned, it's perversely distorted to suggest that the court found no evidence of a genocide.
To its eternal shame, the final UN resolution on the matter dating November 17 2025 gives us answers to the direction of the international community. With 60 million tons of rubble and countless tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of corpses, the direction of the United Nations was to endorse Donald Trump's plan and establish a "Board of Peace" that nebulously brings Gaza back after the Palestinian Authority demonstrates 'good faith'. Norman Finkelstein ends by soberly describing this move: it's the death knell for Gaza, and for the United Nations.
Norman Finkelstein has long made it his mission to meticulously, methodically, and pointedly dispute Israeli propaganda in the wake of its high-tech killing sprees in Gaza (perversely referred to by Israel as "mowing the lawn"). After Al-Aqsa Flood, the newest round of flinging-everything-against-the-wall-to-see-what-sticks produced grotesque images of mass rape, babies beheaded, and babies in ovens. There was just one problem: not one image existed. As Finkelstein shows in tremendous detail, the mass rape hoax was exactly that. Surely, having failed to provide a shred of evidence of any widespread or systemic sexual violence, our journalists and pundits have backed off such ludicrous defamatory claims? In fact, just yesterday, I watched Dana Bash on CNN say that Hasan Piker defended "sexual violence by Hamas terrorists". These people - our so-called journalists, our politicians - need to be removed from public life and eternally shunned. I see no other way. The gravity of a genocide should shake us to our core, but most all of the world has continued without missing a beat.
Of course, the function of such propaganda is that it has to survive long enough to establish the vocabulary through which subsequent events are discussed. Once “mass rape,” “beheaded babies,” etc. have done their political work, later evidentiary collapse does not receive anything resembling the publicity of the original accusation. The allegation becomes sedimented into conventional wisdom. The damage is done.
The presentation made by the South African delegation to the International Court of Justice on the case of a plausible genocide is equally enlightening in that it demonstrates not only the compromising of certain justices like Sebutinde, but also in the ways that the verdict can be so distorted if not altogether buried in the dustbin of history. How, pray tell, can provisional measures to protect the Palestinians from plausible violations of their protected rights in the genocide convention mean anything more or less than "Israel is plausibly committing genocide"? In a just and humane world, this would be plastered all over our newspapers and our nightly news programs. Instead, it merits no mention, or in the odd case where it's mentioned, it's perversely distorted to suggest that the court found no evidence of a genocide.
To its eternal shame, the final UN resolution on the matter dating November 17 2025 gives us answers to the direction of the international community. With 60 million tons of rubble and countless tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of corpses, the direction of the United Nations was to endorse Donald Trump's plan and establish a "Board of Peace" that nebulously brings Gaza back after the Palestinian Authority demonstrates 'good faith'. Norman Finkelstein ends by soberly describing this move: it's the death knell for Gaza, and for the United Nations.
September 13, 2026
This is a really fascinating read. Finkelstein lays bare the shocking corruption and ineptitude of international court judges and prosecutors in detail. It’s a dense book about a very serious subject but it was fascinating and even occasionally humorous! I learned a lot.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
As I pre-ordered this book I received it early and I am so happy I did. Truly fascinating work as expected from Finkelstein.
September 12, 2026
NF dissects, with abundant data and footnotes, how Israel gets away with land theft and mass murders to create their Greater Israel.
A book that makes your blood boil while reading.
A book that makes your blood boil while reading.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews