Urgent update: Professor Noam Chomsky, scheduled to speak at BZU, denied entry by Israel
update, Right to Education Campaign, 16 May 2010
Professor Noam Chomsky has been denied entry by Israel at Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank. The Professor of Linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was due to speak at Birzeit University on Monday. He was interrogated multiple times by the border police only to be denied entry several hours later. The Israeli authorities have not provided an explanation for the denial.
Prof. Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, and political activist who rose to fame in the 1970s through his opposition to the war in Vietnam.
This refusal comes a year after the independent academic Professor Norman Finkelstein was similarly refused entry by the Israeli authorities.
Academics who hold international passports and wish to teach at Palestinian universities are often denied entry/deported by Israel.
