Love Poetry, Hate Racism reading

by Anthony Anatoly Kudryavitsky - Irish Haiku Society Wed Apr 18, 2007 09:28 ak2004 at planet-save dot com

Good luck with the Galway event!
In Dublin, we have something completely different. Declared anti-racist, this event will be hosted by Dave Lordan, the writer and anti-Israeli campaigner who is currently editing an anthology in support of the cultural boycott of Israel. Although I was invited to read there, I declined the invitation and will boycott the event. The initial idea was good, though.
Anthony Anatoly Kudryavitsky,
Writer and literary translator

by Petal - flower Fri Apr 20, 2007 18:24

Below is the txt of a letter from the great Israeli Poet Aharan Shabatai, husband of the late Tanya Reinhart, to the organisers of a poetry festival in Jerusalem in early 2006, explaining his reasons for boycotting the festival. The actions of the Israeli state vis a vis the palestinains are racist. Boycotting the institutions of that state is an anti-racist act.

'Thank you for the invitation to participate in the International Poetry Festival in Jerusalem, 2006, and for the details. I ask that you remove my name from the list of participants. I read nowadays of the barbarism of the Qalandiah check-point. I object to an international poets festival in a city where the Arab inhabitants are systematically and brutally oppressed, imprisoned between walls, being robbed of their rights and their livelihood, humiliated in check-points, and international laws are trampled. I think that even poets were not allowed in the past, and are not allowed in the present, to ignore persecution and discrimination on a racist and nationalist background'

Yours, Aharon Shabtai

by Fred Johnston Sat Apr 21, 2007 02:04 sylfredcar at iolfree dot ie 1, Carn Ard, Circular Road, Galway 087.2178138

It would appear that at least as much space is devoted to announcing who the organisers of the Galway event are as is devoted to the purpose of the gig.
Living in Galway, it is very interesting to note the names NOT on the list - campaigners like John Arden, Margaretta D'Arcy, myself for instance, none of us being afraid to put our names to the odd protesting letter now and then. I wasn't invited to attend, nor, I am sure, were they. Why not?
It would seem that even an event such as this can be lowered by some to the level of 'I'm not asking you because I don't like you and to hell with the real issue.'
I know for a fact that there are one or two on the list who wouldn't write a letter of protest to a newspaper if the fate of the nation depended upon it. Begrudgery? No, I would hope I'm not sounding like that. But I'll risk accusations of it because I detest hypocrisy. It would be a disaster were such events to become mere staging-posts for one-upmanship of a grubby sort. Anyone wishing to know why I feel this way about an otherwise noble event, they can contact me at the supplied phone numbers and e-mail.

by Behaviourist Thu May 03, 2007 03:40

"The great Israeli poet Aharan Shabatai"?????? Who ever heard of him? Try to google his name - and you'll get NOTHING. Zilch. Or is he great merely because of having been married to the late Taliban Tanya?

And of course, we can't do without our Jack at a pinch, Fred Johnston. Indeed, why wasn't he invited? And Margaretta D'Arcy? And a couple of vetted BNP members, also anti-Israel, but not as much as our Jack and Jill, of course...