Noam Chomsky for Refugee Crisis 2016-08-10, 1:53 PM

Noam Chomsky for Refugee Crisis

Noam Chomsky

DiEM25 , May 5, 2016

In some countries, there is a real refugee crisis. In Lebanon, for example, where perhaps one-
quarter of the population consists of refugees from Syria, over and above a flood of refugees
from Palestine and Iraq. Other poor and strife-ridden countries of the region have also
absorbed huge numbers of refugees, among them Jordan, and Syria before its descent to
collective suicide. The countries that are enduring a refugee crisis had no responsibility for
creating it. Generating refugees is largely a responsibility of the rich and powerful, who now
groan under the burden of a trickle of miserable victims whom they can easily accommodate.

The US-UK invasion of Iraq alone displaced some 4 million people, of whom almost half fled to
neighboring countries. And Iraqis continue to flee from a country that is one of the most
miserable on earth after a decade of murderous sanctions followed by the sledgehammer blows
of the rich and powerful that devastated the ruined country and also ignited a sectarian
conflict that is now tearing the country and the region to shreds.

There is no need to review the European role in Africa, the source of more refugees, now
passing through the funnel created by the French-British-US bombing of Libya, which virtually
destroyed the country and left it in the hands of warring militias. Or to review the US record in
Central America, leaving horror chambers from which people are fleeing in terror and misery,
joined now by Mexican victims of the trade pact which, predictably, destroyed Mexican
agriculture, unable to compete with highly subsidized US agribusiness conglomerates.

The reaction of the rich and powerful United States is to pressure Mexico to keep US victims far
from its own borders, and to drive them back mercilessly if they manage to evade the controls.
The reaction of the rich and powerful European Union is to bribe and pressure Turkey to keep
pathetic survivors from its borders and to herd those who escape into brutal camps.

Among citizens, there are honorable exceptions. But the reaction of the states is a moral
disgrace, even putting aside their considerable responsibility for the circumstances that have

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Noam Chomsky for Refugee Crisis 2016-08-10, 1:53 PM

compelled people to flee for their lives.

The shame is not new. Let us keep just to the United States, the most privileged and powerful
country in the world, with incomparable advantages. Throughout most of its history it
welcomed European refugees, to settle the lands taken by violence from the assassinated
nations that dwelt in them. That changed with the Immigration Act of 1924, aimed at excluding
particularly Italians and Jews. There is no need to dwell on their fate. Even after the war,
survivors still confined to concentration camps were barred entry. Today, Roma are being
expelled from France to horrible conditions in Eastern Europe, descendants of Holocaust
victims, if anyone cares.

The shame is deep and persistent. The time has surely come to put it to an end and to try to
attain some decent level of civilization.

CHOMSKY.INFO

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