Tag: Prof. Noam Chomsky

  • Chomsky says Northern Ireland is model for Kurdish solution

    Chomsky says Northern Ireland is model for Kurdish solution

    noam chomsky
    Noam Chomsy

    BARRY J WHYTE

    Noam Chomsky, the American linguistics professor, believes that the Northern Ireland peace process can offer a model for solving the Kurdish problem.

    Chomsky, who is in Istanbul Bilgi University for the 7th annual “Gathering in Istanbul for Freedom of Expression,” said that careful examination of the Irish and Spanish models will provide the key to success. He said that he is in favour of a general amnesty for Kurdish guerillas, which was a key factor in convincing Irish Republicans to join the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement.

    He also pointed out that there had been some recent positive developments on the Kurdish issue in Turkey.

    Chomsky teaches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    , October 11, 2010

  • Chomsky on Israel: “Sheer Criminal Aggression, with no Credible Pretext”

    Chomsky on Israel: “Sheer Criminal Aggression, with no Credible Pretext”

    Noam Chomsky on Israel and the Gaza Flotilla Attack: “Sheer Criminal Aggression, with no Credible Pretext”

    CHICAGO, Illinois – June 2 – Professor Noam Chomsky, renowned foreign policy analyst and bestselling author of Hegemony and Survival and most recently of Hopes and Prospects (Haymarket Books) offered the following statement to Egypt’s Al-Ahram regarding Israel’s justification for it’s attack on humanitarian aid boats headed for Gaza and the broader context regarding the economic blockade which the activists aboard the ships were attempting to break. Chomsky, who is Jewish, was recently detained at the Israeli border and barred from entering the West Bank for a planned speaking engagement, provoking an international debate, and outrage over the issue of free speech in Israel.

    Hijacking boats in international waters and killing passengers is, of course, a serious crime.  The editors of the London Guardian are quite right to say that “If an armed group of Somali pirates had yesterday boarded six vessels on the high seas, killing at least 10 passengers and injuring many more, a Nato taskforce would today be heading for the Somali coast.” It is worth bearing in mind that the crime is nothing new.
    For decades, Israel has been hijacking boats in international waters between Cyprus and Lebanon, killing or kidnapping passengers, sometimes bringing them to prisons in Israel including secret prison/torture chambers, sometimes holding them as hostages for many years.

    Israel assumes that it can carry out such crimes with impunity because the US tolerates them and Europe generally follows the US lead.
    Much the same is true of Israel’s pretext for its latest crime: that the Freedom Flotilla was bringing materials that could be used for bunkers for rockets.  Putting aside the absurdity, if Israel were interested in stopping Hamas rockets it knows exactly how to proceed: accept Hamas offers for a cease-fire.  In June 2008, Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire agreement.  The Israeli government formally acknowledges that until Israel broke the agreeement on November 4, invading Gaza and killing half a dozen Hamas activists, Hamas did not fire a single rocket. Hamas offered to renew the cease-fire.  The Israeli cabinet considered the offer and rejected it, preferring to launch its murderous and destructive Operation Cast Lead on December 27.  Evidently, there is no justification for the use of force “in self-defense” unless peaceful means have been exhausted.  In this case they were not even tried, although—or perhaps because—there was every reason to suppose that they would succeed.  Operation Cast Lead is therefore sheer criminal aggression, with no credible pretext, and the same is true of Israel’s current resort to force.

    The siege of Gaza itself does not have the slightest credible pretext.  It was imposed by the US and Israel in January 2006 to punish Palestinians because they voted “the wrong way” in a free election, and it was sharply intensified in July 2007 when Hamas blocked a US-Israeli attempt to overthrow the elected government in a military coup, installing Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan.  The siege is savage and cruel, designed to keep the caged animals barely alive so as to fend off international protest, but hardly more than that.  It is the latest stage of long-standing Israeli plans, backed by the US, to separate Gaza from the West Bank.

    These are only the bare outlines of very ugly policies, in which Egypt is complicit as well.

  • Chomsky: Palestine and the region in the Obama era: the emerging framework.

    Chomsky: Palestine and the region in the Obama era: the emerging framework.

    Date: 29.10.09
    Time: 14:00
    Location: Logan Hall, Institute of Education, Bedford Way
    Speakers:
    Prof. Noam Chomsky – Professor Emeritus in Linguistics at MIT; world renowned author and leading intellectual
    Tariq Ali – Historian, Author and well known political commentator

    The Imperial College Political Philosophy Society, in association with Palestine societies at UCL, SOAS, Goldsmiths, LSE, Imperial and Kings, proudly present one of the greatest political philosophers of all time: MIT Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky, for what could be his last trip to London.

    The Imperial College Political Philosophy Society

    To Watch the video:

    Chomsky: Palestine and the region in the Obama era: the emerging framework. from ICU Political Philosophy Society on Vimeo.

    Chomsky: Palestine and the region in the Obama era: the emerging framework. from ICU Political Philosophy Society on Vimeo.