Chomsky made this recent speech at a conference in Boston in response to the Annapolis summit, which had not yet occurred. The conference was titled “The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel: Highlighting Issues of Justice and Equality.” It was sponsored by a Palestinian Christian organization and appeared on Democracy Now! on November 27th. Chomsky compares Israel to South Africa and states that Israel’s US-backed occupation and annexation of Palestinian land is the major roadblock to peace in the Middle East.

The beginning of it may sound familiar because I posted a revised text version of it here on the 20th. As you may recall, it starts out in a rather provocative tone: “Before saying a word, I’d like to express some severe personal discomfort, because anything I say will be abstract and dry and restrained. The crimes against Palestinians… are so shocking that the only emotionally valid reaction is rage and a call for extreme actions.”