Noam Chomsky at United Nations: It Would Be Nice if the United States Lived up to International Law

this is democracy now democracynow.org the war and peace report i meani goodman as we return to MIT professor Noam Chomsky world renowned political dissident linguist and author last week he spoke before over 800 people in the whole of the United Nations General Assembly before ambassadors and the public alike on the issue of the of Israel and Palestine after his speech I conducted a public interview with Professor Chomsky what do you think is the most the single most important action the United States can take and what about its role over the years what is its interest here well one important action that the United States could take is to live up to its own laws of course it would be nice if it lifts up the international law but maybe that's too much to ask but live up to its own laws and there there are several and here incidentally I have in mind advice to activists also who I think ought to be organizing and educating in this direction there are two crucial cases one of them is the what's called the Leahy law Patrick lay senator lay introduced legislation called the lay law which bars sending weapons to any military units which are involved in consistent human rights violations there is the slightest doubt that the Israeli army is involved in massive human rights violations which means that all dispatch of us arms to Israel is in violation of US law I think that's significant the US should be called upon by its own citizens to and by others to adhere to US law which also happens to conform the international law in this case as Amnesty International for example for years has been calling for an arms embargo against Israel for this reason these are all steps that can be taken the second is the tax-exempt status that is given to organizations in the United States which are directly involved in the occupation and in a significant attacks on human and civil rights within Israel itself like the Jewish National Fund take a look at its Charter with the State of Israel which commits it to acting for the benefit of people of Jewish race religion and origin within Israel one of the consequences of that is that by a complex array of laws and administrative practices the fund pretty much administers about 90% of the land of the country with real consequences for who can live places via tax exempt status also for their activities in the West Bank which are strictly criminal I think that's also straight in violation of US law those are important things and I think the US should be pressured internationally and domestically to abandon its virtual unique role unilateral role in blocking a political settlement for the past 40 years ever since the first veto in January 1976 that should be a major issue in the media in convocations like this in the United Nations and domestic politics and government politics and so on the roll the role of the media can you talk about that and particularly in the United States and do you think that the opinion in the United States public opinion is shifting on this issue well the role of the media are somewhat shifting from a uniform support for virtually everything that Israel does to and of course silence about the u.s. role that's not just in the case of Israel that's innumerable other cases as well but slowly shifting but nevertheless went about say Operation protective edge and one can read in news reporting news reporting in the New York Times major journal a criticism of Hamas is assault on Israel during protective edge Hamas is assault on Israel not exactly what happened but that's what people are reading and that's the way it's depicted Israel is over and over it's pointed out look poor Israel is under attack it has the right of self-defense everyone agrees to that actually I agree to everyone has a right of self-defense but that's not the question the question is do you have a right of self-defense by force by violence the answer is no for anyone whether it's an individual or a state unless you have exhausted peaceful means if you won't even permit peaceful means which is the case here then you have no right of self-defense by violence but try to find a word about that in the meeting all you find is self-defense when President Obama rarely says anything about what's happening it's usually if my daughters were being attacked by rockets I would do anything to stop it he's referring not to the palestinian hundreds of Palestinian children who are being killed and slaughtered but to the children in the Israeli taunus they wrote which are which is under attack by Qasim missiles and remember that Israel knows exactly how to stop those missiles namely live up to a ceasefire for the first time and then they would stop as in the past even when Israel didn't live up to a ceasefire that framework and of course the frame the rest of the framework is the United States is an honest broker trying hard to bring the two recalcitrant sides together doing its best than this noble endeavor has nothing to do with the case the u.s. is as some of the US negotiators have occasionally acknowledged Israel's lawyer if there were serious negotiations going on they would be led by some neutral party maybe Brazil which has some international respect and they would bring together the two sides on the one side Israel and the United States on the other side the Palestinians those would be possible realistic negotiations but the chances of anyone in the media either I won't even say pointing it out even thinking about it is minuscule the indoctrination is so deep that really elementary facts like these and they are elementary are almost incomprehensible but to get back to your the last point you mentioned it's very important opinion in the United States is shifting not as fast as in most of the world not as fast as in Europe it's not reaching the point where you could get a vote in Congress anything like the British Parliament a couple days ago but it is changing mostly among younger people and changing substantially I'll just illustrate with personal experience aiming as the same experience until pretty recently when I gave talks on these topics as I've been doing for 40 years I literally had to have police protection even at my own University MIT police would insist them walking me back to my car because of threats they picked up meetings were broken up and so on that's all gone just a couple of days ago I had a talk on these topics at MIT a meeting wasn't broken up no police protection maybe five or six hundred students were there all enthusiastic engaged committed concerned wanting to do something about it that's happening all over the country all over the country Palestinian solidarity is one of the biggest issues on campus enormous change in the last few years that's the way things tend to change it often starts with younger people gradually it gets to the rest of the population efforts of the kind I mentioned say trying to get the United States government to live up to its own laws those could be undertaken on a substantial scale domestically and with support from international institutions and that could lead the further changes I think that the for example the two things that I mentioned would have a considerable appeal to much of the American public why should they be funding military units that are carrying out massive human rights violations why should they be permitting a tax exemption meaning we pay for it that's what a tax exemption means why should we be paying compelled to pay for violations of fundamental human rights in another country and even in occupied territories where it's criminal I think that can appeal to the American population and can lead to the kinds of changes we've seen in other cases final question before we open it up to each of you your thoughts on the BDS movement the boycott divest sanctions movement well the BDS is a set of tactics right these are tactics that you employed when you think they're going to be effective and in ways that you think will be effective tactics are not principles they're not actions that you undertake no matter what because you think they're right but tactics are undertaken if you're serious because you think they're going to help the victims that's how you adjust your tactics not because I think they're right in principle but because I think they will be beneficial that oughta be second nature to activists also second nature should be a crucial distinction between proposing and advocating I can propose now that we should all live in peace and love each other I just proposed it that's not a serious proposal it becomes a serious proposal when it is becomes advocacy commit is given I sketch out a path for getting from here to there then it becomes serious otherwise it's empty words that's crucial and related to this well when you took a take a look at the BDS movement which is separate incidentally from BDS tactics let me make that clear so when the European Union issued its directive or when the that I mentioned or when say the Gates Foundation withdraws investment in security operations that are being carried out not only in the occupied territories but elsewhere that's very important but that's not the BDS movement that's BDS tactics actually BD tactics boycott divestment tactics that's important the BDS movement itself has been an impetus to these developments and in many ways a positive one but I think it has failed and should reflect on its so far unwillingness to face what are crucial questions for activists what's going to help the victims and what's going to harm them what is a proposal and what is real advocacy you have to think that through and it hasn't been sufficiently done so if you take a look at the principles of the VDS movement there three the very slightly in wording but basically three one is actions should be directed against the occupation that has been extremely successful in many ways and it makes sense it also helps educate the Western populations who are being appealed to to participate enables so it's an opening to discuss investigate organize about the participation in the occupation it's very successful a second principle is that media's actions should be continued until Israel allows the refugees to return that has had no success and to the extent that it's been tried it's been negative it just leads to a backlash no basis has been laid for it among the population it is simply interpreted as saying oh you want to destroy the State of Israel we're not going to destroy a state you cannot undertake actions which you think are principled when the work real in the real world they're going to have a harmful effect on the victims there's a third category having to do with civil rights within Israel and there are things that could be done here one of the ones I mentioned in fact the tax rate status for u.s. organizations that are engaged in civil rights by and human rights violations and remember a tax exemption means I pay for that's what a tax exemption is well that's an action to be undertaken others that have been undertaken have had a backlashes which are harmful and I won't run through the record but these are the kinds of questions that always have to be asked when you're involved in serious activism if you care about the victims not just feeling good but caring about the victims that's critically important MIT professor world-renowned linguist dissident Noam Chomsky speaking last Tuesday in the hall of the United Nations General Assembly before 800 people and an event hosted by the UN Committee on the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people if you'd like a copy of today's show you can go to our website at democracynow.org e we wish

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 48,747

Rating: 4.8753543 out of 5

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, DN, News, Politics, democracynow.org, Video, Independent Media, Daily News, Breaking News, World News, Interview, International Law (Field Of Study), Noam Chomsky (Author), Palestine, Israel (Country), Gaza, Hamas, United Nations (Membership Organization), United States Of America (Country), Barack Obama (US President), human rights, BDS, apartheid

Id: 3rI4phnMf-w

Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 22 2014