RAMALLAH, West Bank — In a press conference Aug. 14 in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, the Witness Center for Citizen’s Rights and Social Development launched an unprecedented campaign in Palestine, called the "100 International Intellectuals in Palestine," with the aim of attracting the world’s most prominent thinkers to discuss the Palestinian cause and revive interest in it on the global level.
As a result of the May 17, 2010, ban imposed by the Israeli authorities barring him from visiting the West Bank, internationally renowned thinker Noam Chomsky inaugurated the campaign Aug. 15 via a video teleconference attended by intellectuals and concerned individuals in Nablus.
Chomsky addressed a message to Palestine, saying, “Israel is ignoring the two-state and one-state solutions, while endeavoring to establish a Greater Israel. The cause for the current solution’s failure was Washington's and Israel’s disregard for the national rights of the Palestinian people.”
He reviewed the historical progress of the Palestinian cause, which has been absent from international agendas since Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948, and said, “The possible solution lies in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, which requires American and international will on par with that exhibited vis-a-vis the Iranian dossier. The opportunity today is ripe, and the American public is now more accepting and supporting of the Palestinian cause, just like their European counterparts,” who have been more supportive of the establishment of a Palestinian state.
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