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Noam Chomsky pays tribute to Tanya Reinhart

Noam Chomsky, writing in Counterpoint, pays a moving tribute to Tanya Reinhart - who died of a stroke in her sleep in New York over the weekend:

"Her numerous articles and books drew away the veil that concealed criminal and outrageous actions, and shone a searing light on the reality that was obscured, all of immense value to those who sought to understand and to react in a decent way. Her activism was not limited to words, important as these were. She was on the front line of direct resistance to intolerable actions, an organizer and a participant, a stance that one cannot respect too highly. She will be remembered not only as a resolute and honorable defender of the rights of Palestinians, but also as one of those who have struggled to defend the moral integrity of her own Israeli society, and its hope for decent survival."

Women for Palestine in Australia in their tribute say:

"Tanya Reinhart was one of those rare people who looked beyond ethnic,
political and sectarian loyalties and saw the human being. For the
Palestinians, long used to being demonised and even caricatured as beasts by
their Israeli antagonists, Tanya’s mirror on their lives gave the
Palestinians a chance to be seen as a people who are being brutalised,
penalised and traumatised by the very state of which Tanya was a citizen.
For daring to do that, Tanya was ostracised by many of her own people in
Israel and also by the pro-Zionist lobby groups around the world. Her stance
required a special kind of courage that few have because it put Tanya
outside the world that would ordinarily have feted her achievements and
would have elevated her to the ranks of Israel’s intellectual elite."


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