Author: Tim Reid
Publication: The Times, UK
Date: November 14, 2002
Harvard University yesterday cancelled
a reading by Tom Paulin, the Irish poet, after he allegedly said Jewish
settlers born in the US but living in the Israeli-occupied territories
were Nazis who should be "shot dead".
Mr Paulin, an Oxford University
don and acerbic mainstay of BBC Two's News-night Review, was scheduled
to appear at the Ivy League college today to read selected texts for a
lecture series at its English department.
But after numerous student complaints,
Lawrence Buell, the department chairman, said that the reading had been
cancelled "by mutual consent of the poet and the English department".
Mr Buell also apologized for the
consternation that the invitation to Mr Paulin had caused. He said the
poet was invited last winter, before his remarks were made public.
In April Mr Paulin, no stranger
to plain speaking, was quoted in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram weekly
as saying that "Brooklyn-born Jews" who became settlers in the occupied
Palestinian territories "should be shot dead. I think they are Nazis, racists,
I feel nothing but hatred for them."
The Arabic-language newspaper
also quoted the 53-year old poet as saying: "I can understand how suicide
bombers feel. It is an expression of deep injustice and tragedy. I think
that attacks on civilians, in fact, boost morale."
Mr Paulin, who lectures in 19th
and 20th-century English literature at Oxford, has since said that his
views were distorted by the newspaper.
His argument has not placated many
Jewish people at Harvard or the American Jewish lobby. Benjamin Solomon-Schwartz,
undergraduate president of Harvard Hillel, a Jewish student body, said
that he was heartened by the university's decision, adding that Mr Paulin's
comments crossed the line between opinion and "being inhumane".
A sophomore, Erol Gulay, 19, co-chairman
of the student group Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee, said that
Mr Paulin's comments were "offensive and extremist". However, the school
might be setting an unfortunate precedent, Mr Gulay said. "It's a blow
for academic freedom and free speech. It's bad for the free exchange of
ideas, which is what a university is all about. If he can't come speak
at a university, where can he speak?"
Shortly after his comments were
published Mr Paulin said: "I have been and am a lifelong opponent of anti-Semitism
and a consistent supporter of a Palestinian state. I do not support attacks
on Israeli citizens under any circumstances. I am in favour of the current
efforts to achieve a two-stage solution to the conflict between Israel
and the Palestinians. The terrible events in the Middle East are a real
source of anguish. We are all responsible for what is happening there,
and we ate responsible, too, for finding a just and lasting peace."
Mr Paulin's views on the Middle
East have been reflected in his poetry. In his poem Killed in the Crossfire,
he writes of "another little Palestinian boy in trainers jeans and a white
tee-shirt" killed by the "Zionist SS".
At the British Press 'Awards this
year he accused the satirists John Fortune and John Bird of failing to
expose the "Zionism" of new Labour. But that was tame compared with a televised
debate with Germaine Greer, herself no wallflower, about the role of British
paratroops at Bloody Sunday.
"They were thugs sent in by public
schoolboys to kill innocent Irish people. They were rotten racist bastards,"
he said.
Mr Paulin, who was born in Leeds
but lived in South Belfast from the age of four, has described himself
as coming from "a dying breed of old middle class, Protestant, socialist
dissenters".
He is on a two-year sabbatical from
Oxford University and is lecturing at Colombia University, New York. He
was unavailable for comment last night. Oxford University said yesterday
that it had conducted an inquiry into the alleged comments, but had decided
to take no action against Mr Paulin.
A BBC spokesman said: "Tom is a
major independent contributor to News-night Review. The BBC is satisfied,
from assurances Tom Paulin gave both privately to the BBC and in a subsequent
statement that he does not hold the views ascribed to him."