Noam Chomsky Denied Entry into Israel

Imagine that.

From Haaretz:

Left-wing American linguist Professor Noam Chomsky was denied entry into Israel on Sunday, for reasons that were not immediately clear.

Chomsky, who was scheduled to deliver a lecture at Bir Zeit University near Jerusalem, told the Right to Enter activist group by telephone that inspectors had stamped the words "denied entry" onto his passport when he tried to cross from Jordan over Allenby Bridge.

When he asked an Israeli inspector why he had not received permission, he was told that an explanation would be sent in writing to the American embassy.

Birzeit University is the first institution of higher education established in the Palestinian territories. Classes are taught in Arabic and English. Chomsky's lecture was to take place in the university's main auditorium, Kamal Naser Hall. Kamal Naser, shown with Nasar Arafat and others, was once editor of a PLO newspaper and also a member of the PLO executive committee. In 1967, he was expelled from the West Bank by Israel. In 1973, following the PLO's murder of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes at the 1972 Munich games, an Israel Defense Force team assassinated Kamal Naser and two other terrorists in a PLO hideout in Lebanon.

Chomsky has lectured at Birziet University in the past.
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