MIT Professor Noam Chomsky’s speaking tour of the Middle East was cut short today, when Israeli border troops barred him from entering the West Bank by way of Jordan. Chomsky was scheduled to speak at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank on Monday.
Israeli officials did not provide any specific reason for Chomsky’s ban, but the Interior Ministry suggested that once it was revealed that Chomsky only intended to visit the occupied West Bank and not Israel itself they contacted the military to try to get the ban rescinded.
According to Chomsky the border guards told him the Israeli government “doesn’t like the kind of things I say.” The 82-year-old, a self-described anarchist, says he told them no governments like anything he says.
Chomsky and his late wife briefly lived in Israel on a kibbutz in 1953, and the professor has given numerous lectures at Israeli universities over the years. Chomsky has often criticized Israel’s foreign policy and its treatment of the Palestinians.
The Palestinian MP who invited him slammed the banning as “suppression of freedom of expression,” while a Kadima MP, Otniel Schneller, praised the move, saying that if Chomsky wanted to enter he should “try one of the tunnels connecting Gaza and Egypt,” tunnels which have been repeatedly targeted by Israeli air strikes.
its become more and more clear that israel is full of shit, israel does not care at all about "jews" or the "jewish people". they care only for their state power and any one who serves it.
once upon a time i had dreamed of living there now id rather sit in a prison.
say hi to john haggi you hypocrites
Me too paul… I once was interested to live there, but when they blew up the airplanes of Middle East Airlines to end their competition, I began to see the emergence of what they have become and are now today. They have become aggressive monsters…not entirely their fault, but I guess if you steal someone elses house, you need to sleep lightly. I suppose it's the divine mandate that is the rub… G-d told me to do it, G-d told us it's OURS..!!! http://imeu.net/news/article0016292.shtml
well i was a bit more propagandized and did not realize the truth till i went there
I have no sympathy for Chomsky: he's free to roam, giving his dull lectures, being more of professional kvetch than a professional linguist or social commentator. He's a bright guy, but as Sartre once complained about giving lectures, you don't tend to say anything new. But then that's true of 99% of the folks on the prof. lecture circuit: duller'n dishwater. Let Chomsky stay in Jordan & see how long before they toss him outta there too.
The Israeli Government is running one of the biggest scams in the world. The Israeli government pretends to be a lonely outpost for enlightment values is the despotic region of the Middle East. The Israeli government is, in fact, a militant aparthied state that wraps it torture, murder, and starvation of innocent men, women, and children in a cloak of moral righteousness. Whatever semblance of moral authority the Israeli government once had, it lost it long ago.
The Nazis wouldn't have let Chomsky into Poland either. So why should the Israelis let him into their little killing ground? It's theirs, after all. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme Reich.
That would be "le même Empire" or "le même Reich" for added sarcasm.
"The only democracy in the Middle East"
HAHAHAHA
gives him more street creds. next the fbi will bug his phones.
I'm trying real hard to understand why my post continues to be censored. There is no foul language; no personal attack, no ad hom – just a critique of Chomsky's views(or lack of)on the Israel Lobby.
No why in the world would Jason – or whoever it is censoring this page – repeatedly erase this post?
If said dictator isn't a coward than I think he/she should post the reasons for eliminating the post that I have attempted to post three times now. And if he/she is still to frightened to do so in public than he/she can tell me through email..
same has happened to me
Funny how that post didn't need to be approved, or didn't get censored….
uh huh
@Steve and Bog.. Know what boys? It happens to everyone. It's an automatic, funky system designed to weed out trolls. All of us from time to time says something that looks trollish and gets moderated. Being paranoid about this is inappropriate. Or, as the sayin' has it.. it ain't personal.
I didn't know that. "Inappropriate"-quite. I feel foolish actually.
But thanks, just the same….
This headline is misleading. According to the story, Chomsky was barred from entered the West Bank. The West Bank is not Israel. It is territory illegally occupied by Israel.
israel is the sovriegn power in the west bank controlling access, administration, taxes and movement it is israel until the palestinians have a state