Noam Chomsky Denied Entry to Israel

JERUSALEM, May 17, 2010 — -- Israeli authorities admitted today that they erred by denying renowned left-wing, U.S. intellectual Noam Chomsky entry into Israeli-controlled territory.

After hours of questioning Sunday by Israeli officials at a border crossing between Jordan and the occupied Palestinian West Bank, he was forced to return to the Jordanian capital, Amman.

A linguist and political activist with a track record of criticizing Israeli policy, Chomsky had been scheduled to deliver two lectures at the Palestinian University of Bir Zeit. He was also due to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyed and other officials from the Palestinian Authority.

Chomsky told the Israeli daily Haaretz in a telephone interview that he thought the decision had been taken because of his political views and because he was only visiting a Palestinian college and not an Israeli one as well.

"I find it hard to think of a similar case in which entry to a person is denied because he is not lecturing in Tel Aviv, perhaps only in Stalinist regimes," he said.

In recent months, Israeli officials have restricted access to foreigners traveling directly to the occupied West Bank. Under Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, travel to and from Palestinian areas is exclusively controlled by Israeli authorities.