To have an international thinker like Noam Chomsky come last week to Gaza was a historical occasion that shouldn’t be unmarked. Many times my friends and I had been hearing professors in our university classes mention his name in the course of teaching the philosophy of language, particularly his theory of universal grammar. To me I always thought that there are huge stages distancing us from this man’s own stage of knowledge; and an actual attendance to him lecturing is far from probable.
So Chomsky’s days in Gaza are really celebrations at more than the obvious level.
Gaza celebrates the moral support of an important figure represented by Chomsky, a figure incarnated in his constructive speeches on the Palestinian cause and the colonial powers in the ME. Such a memorable stand has been realized by Gaza academics and specialists in media and politics, who in turn extended the awareness of Chomsky’s sizeable sympathy more widely here. Palestinians in Gaza appreciate the man’s spirit of independence and freedom, a spirit that should have been maintained in human rights for all peoples in the world.
Gaza says congratulations for itself and for Chomsky who had earlier been absented from lecturing in the Palestinian occupied territories’ universities, owing to the Israeli occupation’s gagging policy. The Gaza Strip chants, Today we are a stage for speakers in support of the human cause, a place where this voice can go through to the world unrestricted by the Israeli anti-democratic measures banning movement and free expression.
Gaza celebrates its determination to globalize its academic achievements despite the Israeli blockade barring it from stepping forwards its educational aspirations. It also gives a full stop to Israel’s daring to discourage the Palestinians from the march of learning and higher education. The IUG’s hosting of international academic figures at its first conference on Linguistics and literature constitutes a milestone in Gaza’s willingness to accept challenge and its compatibility to join the world’s arena of research.
It’s not all about material support that the Palestinians are in need of. This magnificent event proves the people in Gaza have dreams to be truly flowering in the future: to secure a sophisticated place among nations scientifically, and to vie for academic excellence just as all the nations worldwide. The Palestinians say it plain: free us from the occupation’s obstacles to get the best of our resources to emerge.
Justice is getting more transparent today. What happened to Chomsky a few years ago (when he could not even enter the West Bank) was very unreasonable; how come the so-widely-proclaimed tolerance of Israel blocks Chomsky’s way into Ramallah? Is he so rude to its media machine? What about showing respect to the cultivated?
Just cause is to prevail, Israel’s strongman is to pale. Welcome Chomsky.
Murad Abdulrahman, thanks for this. Take care, be well, or at least try to be. And survive, please! in other words, if I ever read about your being “occasionally near” one of the new tools, I won’t believe it.
congratulations for pulling off The First International Conference on Applied Linguistics and Literature (ICALL) with such an impressive list of speakers! i hope this becomes a yearly event.
good job abed. Keep writing
Just cause is to prevail, Israel’s strongman is to pale. Welcome Chomsky.
just noticed this. impressive finale.