By DPA,
Tel Aviv : Israel deported a controversial Jewish-American academic who is a fierce critic of its polices and who has lauded the pro-Iranian Hezbollah organization, the Ha’aretz daily reported Sunday.
Norman Finkelstein was detained for several hours at Ben Gurion International Airport late Friday through Saturday before being put on an aircraft back to Amsterdam, his original point of departure.
The Israeli daily quoted the Shin Bet internal security organization as saying that Finkelstein “is not permitted to enter Israel because of suspicions involving hostile elements in Lebanon,” and because he “did not give a full accounting to interrogators with regard to these suspicions.”
Finkelstein, who has accused Israel of “exploiting” the Holocaust, met recently with Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon, and praised the fiercely anti-Israel organization whose July 2006 snatch of two Israeli soldiers during a cross-border raid sparked a 33-day war between the Jewish state and the guerrilla organization.