By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 14 --
When Noam
Chomsky came
to the UN to
give a speech
in the General
Assembly on
Palestinian
rights, Inner
City Press asked
him about
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
performance on
Palestine, and
about the
situation of
the Kurds of
Kobane in
Syria. Video
here and
embedded
below.
Chomsky
said
that the UN
operates in
limits set by
the great
powers, on
Palestine
mostly the US,
and that it
has been that
way for 50
years. He went
on to chide
the BDS
movement,
calling it
only “BD”
(boycott and
divestment")
since
sanctions
“come only
from states.”
He said
tactics about
the occupation
are effective,
about the
right to
return for
refugees, not
so much.
On
Kobane,
Chomsky called
it a terrible
situation,
noting that
Turkey had
just bombed
not the
Islamic State
of Iraq and
the Levant but
rather the
Kurdish PKK,
which he
called the
most effective
force so far
in combating
ISIL.
The
moderator
gently chided
Inner City
Press, which
prefaced its
questions by
thanking
Chomsky on
behalf of the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
for not
limited its
questions to
Palestine.
But Chomsky seemed
happy to
answer both.
He went on to
talk about
coming to the
UN in 1978
about East
Timor, “the
press didn't
care,” he
said.
Those
attitudes
remain in
place in the
UN, and the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access is
working to
combat it. On
Sri Lanka, the
old
UN
Correspondents
Association
used the
privileged
position the
UN gives it
to host the
Rajapaksa
government's
denial of war
crimes.
After Inner
City Press covered
this, it was
told to remove
the article
from the
Internet
or it would be
thrown out of
the UN.
Documents
emerged about
this after a
Freedom of
Information
Act request,
here (Voice of
America),
here
(Reuters,
and
censorship), here
(AFP) and
on
UNCA itself,
here.
Chomsky stands
for freedom of
inquiry, and
there should
be more of it
at the UN.
, 
