So a reader of this blog, Truth Addict, wrote to Noam Chomsky about his lack of references to Palestinian or Arab sources. His response:
""You're quite right about my lack of reference to Arab sources. That's almost universal in discussion of these matters. Actually, I refer to them more than almost anyone I'm aware of. I believe, for example, that my book Fateful Triangle is the only one that covers the Lebanese (English language) press in any detail, or at all, with regard to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. And I often refer to other (English language) Arab sources, such as al-Ahram weekly (where I also publish). I also follow closely the work of friends and other scholars and analysts who do read Arabic fluently, but they also rarely use Arabic sources (Ed Said, Eqbal Ahmed, Naseer Aruri, Ilan Pappe, and others).
There are good reasons for this. One is that these sources are very thin. There are, for example, no archival sources from the Arab world. A second is that I don't read Arabic. I once did, to some extent, 55 years ago, but I pretty much lost the ability, in part because there simply wasn't a lot to read in the areas that interested me most. That's your point (A) [that Western and Israeli sources are what he is most exposed to]. Your point (B)[that "it is a strategic tactic that keeps them from racistly denying your sources as self-serving and agenda based"] is correct. Thus in the debate I cited particularly Benny Morris, in part because his historical work is valuable, but also because he is an extreme racist who despises Palestinians with a passion and because he is the favorite of apologists for Israeli crimes, like Dershowitz (people who don't, incidentally, understand the archival material he has unearthed).

Noam Chomsky""