Sunday, January 20, 2008

We Need to Look Carefully at the Palestinians and Their Needs


This is a somewhat difficult speech, because Chomsky is talking to an audience he knows are relatively well informed. What may not be obvious to a casual listener is the general backdrop of Israel's behavior to the Palestinian community. It is, for example, nearly impossible for Palestinians to move about. There are myriad Israeli check points within Gaza and the West Bank which detain ordinary Palestinians for hours, endlessly checking papers and holding folks in que. This, by the way, is in territory seized by Isrrael in the 1967 war which the UN and other international bodies have proclaimed an illegal occupation. Thus, all this restraint is against international law. There are, further, multiple Israeli settlements in the (illegally) occupied territories which exclude, of course, all Arabs. The roads connecting these (illegal) settlements cannot be used, or even crossed, by Palestinians, and constitute a series of barriers spitting their native land into islands which make a unified Palestinian state impossible, physically. The Israelis are, also, building a series of high concrete walls to separate the Palestinian lands (currently occupied) from Israel. These walls further isolate Gaza and the West Bank, and encroach in many areas on Palestinian territory. You will hear Chomsky point out that the Israeli position has been that the state of Jordan is the Palestinian state, and the lands claimed by current Palestinians are "additional" and unacceptable Palestinian states. This is the backdrop against which it might be helpful to listen to Noam Chomsky's talk. It's compressed and assumes some knowledge, but it has much to offer.

In the way of preparation, have a look at this preliminary video:

Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land

And then, here's Noam Chomsky:

Noam Chomsky talks about the apartheid model in Israel/Palestine--Short Video

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