Noam Chomsky Will Deliver Israel Speech Via Videoconference

After being denied entry to Israel Sunday, left-wing activist and MIT professor Noam Chomsky will give his speech at Birzeit University in the West Bank via videoconference.

The Boston Globe has more on the dust-up between Chomsky and Israeli authorities:

The decision to turn away Chomsky, who is a sharp critic of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians, has become an international controversy and sparked a soul-searching debate within Israel. Critics say that Chomsky was blacklisted for his political views.

Israeli officials have said that the decision to turn Chomsky away was a misunderstanding, and suggested that he could enter the West Bank if he returned to the border.The officials said border officials overstepped their authority and mistakenly believed Chomsky also planned to travel to parts of Israel beyond the occupied West Bank.

Chomsky's daughter, Avi, said the entire situation was "nonsense" and that authorities knew she and her father only planned to visit the university.

What do you think?

Comments

[rgilley]

02:29 PM on 05/19/2010

I hereby nominate Noam Chomsky for the next president of the United States!!
"Imagine"

[agb100]

12:34 PM on 05/20/2010

THE CHOMSKY HOAX EXPOSED:

http://www.paulbogdanor.com/chomskyhoax.html

[ChrisLogan]

05:05 PM on 06/27/2010

Read it carefully. Bogdanor misses the precision of Chomsky's statements. It may be that Bogdanor just cannot grasp the complex details.

[chonus]

10:01 AM on 05/19/2010

And you will post the video once it airs, right, HuffPo?

[Albert Amato]

05:23 PM on 05/18/2010

So Chomsky is the new "CIsco Kid".......errrr, make that "Cisco Curmudgeon".

[Tulka2]

05:41 PM on 05/18/2010

"Cultural Contrarian" is more like it because he is not at all grouchy.... just a thoughtful old Rabbi by nature.

[Albert Amato]

06:10 PM on 05/18/2010

Far be it for me to besmirch his disposition or his alleged amiability.

[caroledekamp]

07:13 PM on 05/18/2010

A wonderful man...

[tallen]

04:16 PM on 05/18/2010

Why is this even news?
Well, it's really not, except at HP.
Chomsky is promoting a book to make himself a boatload of cash...at least he hopes.

[TheLonelyGod]

04:37 PM on 05/18/2010

I certainly don't see why it needed not one but two articles.

[GuiltyByStander]

04:41 PM on 05/18/2010

Most of us, when criticized, don't see why it's necessary.

[joeinvt]

04:36 PM on 05/19/2010

It didn't need two stories but HP had space left over by the failure to even make mention of the "man bites dog" story regarding the demolition of "illegal" Palestinian homes in Gaza by Hamas, yes Hamas (not Israel). Two Chomsky stories trumps one that might not be flattering to Hamas. Fortunately was well covered elsewhere including the Arab News. Anyone interested in a non Chomsky story can check it out here:
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article54490.ece

[GuiltyByStander]

04:38 PM on 05/18/2010

"Well, it's really not, except at HP. "

Except that it really is. Take a quick look around.

"Chomsky is promoting a book to make himself a boatload of cash...at least he hopes. "

He's written dozens of books. Did they become invalid because people bought them?

[sangster]

04:04 PM on 05/18/2010

Noam makes my head hurt. His deep logic. thought process and vocabulary are just mind bending. I guess I'm just not bright enuf or it's the attention span.
He is great.

[Tulka2]

05:37 PM on 05/18/2010

Chomsky is good for the little gray cells. Stretch your brain. Little doses.

[SlurmsMcKenzie]

03:46 PM on 05/18/2010

At least they didn't Mossad him, yet.

[Tulka2]

03:33 PM on 05/18/2010

We are told again and again by the politically-correct-police.... everyone from Jon Stewart down... that it is a no-no to compare any other group or nation to the Nazis. "The Nazis were one of a kind and never shall we see there like again", is that message. I heard Noam Chomsky on NPR last night compare this government in Israel to the Nazis and you know what? If it's a sensible metaphor for Noam Chompsky, it's a good enough metaphor for me.

[tallen]

04:19 PM on 05/18/2010

"I heard Noam Chomsky on NPR last night compare this government in Israel to the Nazis"

That's a very good example of Chomsky's overall dishonesty and lies.
When Chomsky can show us all the extermination camps, the crematoriums, and explain why the "genocide" of the palestinians has led to the quintupling of their population...then he may gain some small measure of credence.

[Tulka2]

05:35 PM on 05/18/2010

And yet, i am betting you admire Winston Churchill for seeing early on what the Nazis were up to and long before they got to the really crazy stuff.

[chonus]

10:10 AM on 05/19/2010

Rubbish.

[TheLonelyGod]

04:39 PM on 05/18/2010

And then he can't IMAGINE why Israel didn't just let him in.

Read this:
http://www.paulbogdanor.com/chomsky/bogdanor.pdf

[Tulka2]

05:34 PM on 05/18/2010

(Your avatar was my favorite Doctor Who too.) I read the first three, furious pages of the paper you gave me the link to. Bad craziness, if you ask me. Chomsky is one of the brilliant living minds of our era

[JustMeInNY]

07:29 PM on 05/18/2010

Personally, I don't believe that Israel didn't let him in because they attempted censorship or to punish him in any way for having a contrary/controversial view. I just think that they didn't want to deal with what comes as a result of him speaking. He's an instigator and a $hit stirrer, and Israel just doesn't need anymore controversy, they certainly don't need to deal with anymore of: "See, they hurt another *peaceful* demonstrator" as a result of possible violent demonstrators which will later be painted as peaceful.

[Whitley2009]

03:22 PM on 05/18/2010

I'm a gentile and a conservative Democrat who thinks Noam Chomsky is a American national treasure.

Why did the Israelis over react? He can give his speech via telephone or video conference call if necessary.

The whole affair is unnecessary and uncalled for.

[brt929]

04:33 PM on 05/18/2010

Because the extreme right wing is in control of the country right now.

Just as Americans must bear the shame of the misguided 8 years of Bush's presidency, Israel will have to live with the repercussions of electing Bebe Netanyahu.

[agb100]

12:18 PM on 05/20/2010

How's that HOPEY Changey thingy working out for you? Did you see the stockmarket this week? Today? Israel IS living with electing Bibi. That's why they elected him. They knew what they were getting and is popularity is higher than ever. BTW, Obama's popularity in Israel is 4%. Obama's popularity in the US -- and this is not a fake, but a recent CBS poll, is 28%. Check it out. Also while you're at it, GOOGLE: Yellowcake Shipped to Canada and US dismantling Saddam's nuclear facilities.

And then tell me who lied. Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, Barack Obama & Co., or George Bush? Or Noam Chomsky?

[lost souls rembrd]

10:26 AM on 05/19/2010

agree with you Whitley

[vippy]

03:10 PM on 05/18/2010

I am sure it is not the people of Israel but the politicians who keep this mess going. Both people want peace and a roof over their heads but that won't happen.

[chonus]

10:12 AM on 05/19/2010

Yes, I agree.

[jwcmass]

10:58 PM on 05/20/2010

I agree vippy, politicians (with rare exceptions) almost always never look past the next election.

But there is also the fact that there is a minority of people on both sides who, for various ideological reasons (and the basic fact that they "do not work or play well with others" ) who have an interest in keeping the conflict going.

Remember, it was a settler fanatic who assassinated Israeli PM (and would-be peacemaker) Yitzhak Rabin. (Just as it was a Muslim fanatic who assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Anwar Sadat for the same reason).

The danger, sadly, will actually grow as the two sides near agreement (one reason why I think Obama and Mitchell will quietly go for broke and present a complete agreement ASAP). Those opposed to peace and willing to use violence (and there are a minority on BOTH sides who fit this description) WILL try to de-rail the process.

The moderates, and the political leaders MUST NOT LET THIS HAPPEN.

The danger will, one hopes, be short-lived, and once the intransigents realize they won't get their way through violence, hopefully theri movements will dissipate.

But those who want peace -- on both sides, will have to resolve to be more stubborn than those who would try to de-rail the process.

[direct democracy]

02:51 PM on 05/18/2010

MSM mind control

[ItsAD]

02:51 PM on 05/18/2010

Let the Israelis shoot themselves in the foot. With our American guns, no less.

[bigredsuperjock]

02:48 PM on 05/18/2010

The list of jews not allowed in Israel can't be long. Heaven forbid someone have compassion for the plight of the Palestinian.

[Vlady]

02:54 PM on 05/18/2010

" Heaven forbid someone have compassion for the plight of the Palestinian." But Heaven does not forbid anyone for hate of Israel

[chonus]

10:13 AM on 05/19/2010

Nobody hates the people of Israel.

Everybody hates the policies of Israel.

Big difference.

[LMPE]

02:06 PM on 05/18/2010

Israeli authorities don't want Noam Chomsky entering because they know that he would continue to expose what they're doing to the Palestinians.

[BigRed100]

02:36 PM on 05/18/2010

so much for the only democracy in the Middle East

[Whitley2009]

03:23 PM on 05/18/2010

I don't think I would call Israel a democracy. It is more like a Talmudic fascist state.

[Shawn Siegel]

08:39 PM on 05/18/2010

lol! ... and the U.S. ain't far behind!

[JustMeInNY]

02:38 PM on 05/18/2010

What difference does it make where he's preaching from?

I don't think that it was about censorship.

[jwcmass]

04:14 PM on 05/18/2010

That argument could be made were it not for the fact that this is part of a larger, more disturbing pattern to emerge, where the current government seems determined to stifle dissent.

We recently had the closure of the Palestinian villages of Ma'alin and Bil'in -- two villages losing land and being cut into two by the wall. Farmers there will be unable to reach their fields, and thus will lose their means of making a living.

There has been (mostly) peaceful demonstrations going on there, including a number of Israelis. now any Israeli who protests there is threatened with arrest, and reporters are barred from covering the story.

We also have disturbing party planks in the third largest party in the Knesset (an a partner in the current government).

They have proposed bills which would criminalize the commemoration of the Nakba, and have proposed measures designed to strip Israeli Arabs of their citizenship.

Now these bills haven't passed -- YET.

But the fact that they would even be proposed by a party that is part of the government is disturbing in a nation that claims to be a democracy.

So this story is not really about Naom Chomsky -- he will be able to deliver his speech via teleconference.

The real story here is one of a growing pattern in the Israeli government toward authoritarian practices.