Poet told to apologise for remark on Israelis
By Neil Tweedie
(Filed: 16/04/2002)
ACADEMICS at Oxford University expressed disquiet yesterday over an interview with the poet Tom Paulin in which he was reported as saying that American-born Jewish settlers in Israel should be shot dead.
Vernon Bogdanor, professor of government at the university, said Mr Paulin, a lecturer at Hertford College and regular panel member on the BBC2 arts programme Late Review, should apologise immediately if his comments to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly had been accurately reported.
In the interview, Mr Paulin was quoted as saying that he never believed in the right of Israel to exist, before giving his opinion on what were described as "Brooklyn-born" Jewish settlers.
He said: "They should be shot dead. I think they are Nazis, racists, I feel nothing but hatred for them."
Yesterday, Mr Paulin appeared to sound the retreat from that position in a letter written to The Daily Telegraph.
He wrote: "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."
In the letter, Mr Paulin said his views as reported in Al-Ahram, and repeated in The Daily Telegraph, had been "distorted". But when pressed to explain how they had been distorted, he refused.
Prof Bogdanor said: "Obviously, different political views can be held on the Middle East in a liberal society, but if he said that Jewish settlers should be killed then that is inexcusable and unacceptable in any university teacher."
13 April 2002: Oxford poet 'wants US Jews shot'
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