Ethan Bronner rushes to assure readers of the New York Times that Israel goofed on the Chomsky denial:
Government spokesmen were mortified at the development and issued statements saying that the decision was made by an Interior Ministry official at the Jordan-West Bank border and did not represent policy.
Then Bronner offers Israel's rationale for denying the entry, and cites a few other cases:
Israel has felt its legitimacy increasingly under attack in the past year and that has added to the debate here over Mr. Chomsky...
Late last month, Ivan Prado, one of Spain’s most famous clowns, spent six hours at Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv being questioned by security agents before being sent back to Madrid. He ... was accused of having ties with Palestinian terrorist groups by the Israelis.
...In January, Jared Malsin, a young American editor working in Bethlehem for a Palestinian news agency, was barred from re-entering at Ben-Gurion airport after officials said he would not answer questions satisfactorily.
In December 2008, Israel barred Richard Falk, an American who is a United Nations investigator of human rights in the Palestinian areas, saying he was hostile to Israel.... Israeli officials said that Mr. Finkelstein refused to describe the nature of those conversations [with Hezbollah]
Wouldn't it be fair to ask Malsin, Prado, Falk and Finkelstein if Israel is telling the truth about those disgraceful actions?
Have to go to Haaretz. Haaretz columnist says that Chomsky bar is "evil" and possibly "totalitarian," and Israel is encouraging academic boycott of Israel. Carlo Strenger:for the record: Chomsky is in favor of the two-state solution, and neither calls for violence against Israel nor for dismantling the state. He is even against an academic boycott of Israel’s universities – a rather popular cause of the European left in recent years.
I have heard Chomsky speak on a number of occasions in Israel in the 1980s and 1990s. According to his own testimony, he was here last in 1997.
Chomsky has not changed his views since, so it must be Israel that has changed – and very much for the worse. ...
I have never heard of a democratic state denying entry to thinkers (or anybody else for that matter) who neither call for violence or break local or international law. So what on earth is happening to Israel? Is the Interior Ministry offended that Chomsky didn’t also plan to speak in Israel? If so, is this a reason to deny him entry?
Israel is currently fighting international calls to boycott Israeli universities and academics. Does anybody think that denying entry to Chomsky will strengthen our case?
If anything, barring Chomsky gives ammunition to those who say that Israel is infringing on academic freedom in the Palestinian Authority, and that a boycott against its universities is therefore justified.
“I have never heard of a democratic state denying entry to thinkers (or anybody else for that matter) who neither call for violence or break local or international law.”
Hunh?
Weeeeel, the USA routinely denies entry to people invited here to speak. Perhaps, though, it is by now the recieved wisdom that the USA is not (or no longer) a democracy. On the other hand, perhaps he means “any person to whom a valid visa had already been issued” ??
Good point. The US denied entry to Tariq Ramadan for years.
A year or so (maybe more) after Edward Said died, a conference was organized in his honor. Originally slated to take place in the US, it was relocated to Britain because so many of the invited scholars faced denial of entry to the US.
There is quite a bit of concern in academic circles that the American university and research institutions are being harmed by Bush and now Obama entry denials barring academics and students.
It seems Israel has realised it has made a right royal fuck-up on the Chomsky ban issue, and is rapidly back-pedalling, although many in Israel still think the Ministry of the Interior was right to ban a very dangerous 81 year-old anarchist.
What a hoot! I would have thought that Israel would have gone out of its way to welcome Chomksy’s visit with open arms and a parade in his honor.
Chomsky has become the prime water carrier for Israel on the left. He is the main left wing critic of Mearsheimer and Walt. He is probably the most influential critic of any sort of boycotts against Israel for its civil rights violations.
Chomsky has always been Israel’s controlled opposition. Nothing more.
I cannot imagine Israel denying his entry for any reason other than to try to rebuild Chomsky’s ever dwindling credibility among the left. What a blatant bit of disinformation this denial is.
Agreed totally; this is a house of cards, a contrived ‘incident’ that boosts Chomsky”s PEP (Progressive Except for Palestine) credentials even more.
Never to admit he’s wrong on anything, Chomsky is a lionized expert on truth and fairness in the international realm. Just be careful who ye speak to about this. I’ve seen grown adults ready to fight to their death at the slightest notion that Chomsky is flawed protagonist.
My general view regarding progressive positions on any issue is that we’re boned if we demand that peers match our views exactly. Howard Zinn also opposed the academic boycott of Israel. Didn’t make him and doesn’t make Chomsky a “water carrier” for Israel. Chomsky certainly condemns Israeli acts as war crimes. He’s an unambiguous advocate of Palestinian rights. But he has qualms about an academic boycott.
He’s got Alan Dershowitz, Abe Foxman, etc., wailing blue murder. I figure he’s doing something right.
I do think that Chomsky is somewhat set in his views these days. It took him a while to admit he was wrong on Serbian abuses in Kosovo (if I remember right). He’s like a lot of acclaimed scholars — they hate being challenged. That said, he’s a helluva a lot better than most I’ve encountered. I had the misfortune to spend five minutes talking to Harvard Law bigot Charles Fried once. Made a point, he blathered on and a minute later restated my point almost verbatim. That’s deaf and dumb.
I’ll take Chomsky’s intransigence over the moronic, self-righteous bigotry of Ethan Bronner, the New York Times, NPR, CNN, etc etc etc, any day of the week.
Something strange happened to the above message. When I started to write ‘My..’ my computer suddenly switched to ‘My Computer’ and I got a robot voice telling me to do something, continuously. This makes me paranoid; somebody is messing around with the internet, and I don’t need any prompting to tell me who it might be.
My original opinion that a mere frontier guard/goon made a goof is superceded by reports (like Bronner’s) that he was in regular communication with the Ministry of the Interior. Now that same ministry is saying it was all a mistake. Bullshit.
Did the computer ask you to touch yourself? I get that sometimes!
Ha, it’s probably just Mossad shaking the branches. If you stop posting in the coming days. we’ll know we’ve lost another trooper!
I actually thought the comments by the Kadima member was interesting:
“This is a decision of principle between the democratic ideal — and we all want freedom of speech and movement — and the need to protect our existence,” said Otniel Schneller, of the centrist Kadima party, on Israel Radio. “Let’s say he came to lecture at Birzeit. What would he say that? That Israel kills Arabs, that Israel is an apartheid state?”
In another three months, Mr. Schneller went on, some Israeli would be standing over her son’s grave, the victim of incitement “in the name of free speech.” People like Mr. Chomsky, he added, do not have to be granted permission to enter.
So Chomsky speaks the truth and that’s incitement? He threatens Israel’s existence? Talk about misplaced blame.
Otniel Schneller, is a settler and former Yesha Council member. Kadima is a mixed bag, at best.
Israel is a self-declared democracy. Hitler was a self-declared socialist.
Duh, Bronner obviously can’t call Finkelstein or the Spanish clown — they are biased against the Israeli state! To speak to them would put the integrity of the New York Times at great risk. Fair and Balanced means only talking to the people you already agree with.
link to
It seems that Prado is not quite the ‘famous Spanish clown’ many reports have made him out to be. He is a radical Galician separatist. One Spanish supermarket chain prints its own-brand cartons in 4 different languages (Castillian, Basque, Catalan and Gallego).
Prior to his ventures into Palestine, he took up the cause of Chiapas, Mexico.
link to pallasosenrebeldia.org
In other words, he’s a thoroughly good bloke.
But not quite the person you want to come into your apartheid state and talk to the ‘niggers’.
link to azvsas.blogspot.com
Israel seems to have been playing a game of “how far can we go,” without looking absolutely petty and ridiculous. They may have hit the proverbial wall with this one.
However, I did get a good kick out of some of the posts here about “Chomsky the undercover Zionist”…lol Even though there are a number of issues I do not agree with Chomsky on I would not resort to this type of nonsense. I think the real issue may not be Israel at all (with those who want to make Chomsky a deep cover agent), but the fact that some cannot face the systemic nightmare of their own nation (USA) and how he lays it bare – nor stand the historic truth of its course. Than again I might be wrong