This comes from a friend and comrade who's an undergrad at the Islamic University of Gaza, which hosted Noam Chomsky at its First International Conference on Applied Linguistics and Literature (http://icall.iugaza.edu.ps) and gave him an honorary doctorate this weekend:
"I disagree with Professor Noam Chomsky. But the questions he addressed regarding the final outcome of the Palestinian struggle are reasonable and should be thought more about. Many people on the online platform were hostile to Chomsky as they read our live-feed from the room. And at some point, our ecstasy over Chomsky’s visit was implicitly questioned. "It’s fair to say that the young Gazans, and especially those of us who attended his lectures, are honored to have Professor Chomsky visit us here. The fact that many of us do not agree with him on many levels does not mean that we should close our minds or be hostile to him. "To have the father of modern linguistics and one of the world’s most celebrated public intellectuals cross into Gaza and participate in IUG’s linguistics conference is a success that deserves to be acknowledged. For so long, the Palestinian educational system has been closed into itself and therefore producing generations that are educated on the surface but that are incapable of participating in a more open and multicultural environment. Of course, the problem hasn’t been rooted out to say the least. But at least, our local universities have finally started to think in that direction. "And being Jewish, Chomsky’s visit discredited charges of anti-Semitism that are usually blared out about the people of Gaza. Professor Chomsky received a very warm welcome here from all sectors of the society. Whether in Almathaf or the Islamic University, you could see beards, wax-spiked hair, headscarves, Niqabs and ponytails ..." http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rana-baker/reflections-noam-chomskys-visit-gaza -- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."
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