PRESS TRUST of INDIA
JERUSALEM: Political activist and noted American linguist Noam Chomsky was denied entry into Israel on Sunday without citing any reasons.
Mr. Chomsky, who was scheduled to deliver a lecture at the 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 the 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.”
Mr. Chomsky arrived at the Allenby Bridge at around 1:30 p.m. and was taken for questioning, before being released back to Amman at 4:30 p.m., Bir Zeit university sources said.
An ardent critic of Israeli and American policy, Mr. Chomsky, a Jew, is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.