Political analyst and scholar Noam Chomsky spoke to a standing-room-only crowd last night at Jacob Sleeper Auditorium to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and complications associated with a resolution.
The event, ‘Paths to Peace: Hopes and Barriers,’ was jointly sponsored by the Middle Eastern Studies, a BU graduate student organization, and the Boston Committee for Palestinian Rights. Chomsky, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, spoke for about an hour on the history of United States policy in the Middle East and the barriers against peace.
The controversy surrounding the event was evident due to protesters handing out flyers and standing with signs outside the auditorium.
The lecture highlighted the United States’ involvement abroad, including the impending war in Iraq and Chomsky’s view of our nation blocking the path to a resolution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
‘Peace has been barred for the last 30 years by the U.S.,’ Chomsky said.
Chomsky presented a poll conducted on the conflict, which discussed where America should be directing its support. Chomsky said one-third of respondents believed in equalized aid to both Israel and Palestine, while the majority wanted to cut aid to any side refusing negotiations.
Chomsky said the implications allowing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to continue should be discussed. He said he sees the Americans provoking reasonable outcomes, including peaceful ones, by pressuring the United States government into an actual mainstream peace process.
Criticisms on the United States’ involvement in the Middle East continued, when Chomsky cited America’s layers of control in oil-producing states.
‘If you control the greatest resources of the world, you can ensure it goes back to the right people, the United States and Great Britain,’ Chomsky said sarcastically.
‘The U.S. is a world power we mislead ourselves if we center on a specific region we must think globally,’ he said.
The second part of the event included an hour-long question-and-answer section, where Nancy Murry, the moderator, asked the audience to only ask questions of Chomsky, and not to make speeches stressing their political or religious views. However, people still used the opportunity to attack Chomsky’s views.
Chomsky discussed the repercussions if America were to attack Iraq, as President Bush has recently threatened to do.
‘No resistance, [Iraq] will descend into chaos,’ Chomsky said. ‘The U.S. will take over and put in place governments, like other places.
‘If the U.S. attacks Iraq, it will spawn terror and there will be a humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq,’ he said.
Further questions included discussion on terrorism, the future of the Palestinians, student activism, the stranglehold of the media and the controversy in any supposed demonizing of the United States in Israel.
Jessica Bloom, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, said she was a follower of Chomsky’s work and wanted to take the opportunity to hear him lecture.
‘I’ve read several of his books and was excited to see him in person,’ she said.
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