Harvard cancels poet appearance after students complain about Israel remarks

Associated Press / SFGate

[RCW2001]

JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
©2002 Associated Press

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/11/12/national1943EST0805.DTL

(11-12) 16:43 PST BOSTON (AP) --

After student complaints, Harvard University said Tuesday it had canceled a reading by an Irish poet who compared U.S.-born settlers in the West Bank to Nazis and said they should be "shot dead."

Tom Paulin, an Oxford University lecturer, was scheduled to appear Thursday as part of the English Department's Morris Gray Lecture series.

But in an e-mail to English majors Tuesday, department chair Lawrence Buell said the reading had been canceled "by mutual consent of the poet and the English Department."

Buell also apologized for the "widespread consternation" the invitation to Paulin had caused. He said Paulin was invited last winter, before his controversial remarks, solely because of his poetic achievements.

Benjamin Solomon-Schwartz, undergraduate president of Harvard Hillel, said he was heartened by the university's decision, adding Paulin's comments crossed the line between opinion and "being inhumane."

In April, Paulin was quoted in the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram Weekly, saying American Jewish settlers should be "shot dead."

"I think they are Nazis, racists, I feel nothing but hatred for them," he said.

In the same interview, Paulin said he understands "how suicide bombers feel," but suggested guerrilla warfare would be more effective because attacks on civilians could create a sense a solidarity.

In his poem "Killed in the Crossfire," he writes of "another little Palestinian boy in trainers jeans and a white teeshirt" killed by the "Zionist SS."

Paulin did not respond to phone messages at Columbia University, where he is teaching this semester, or an e-mail message requesting comment. In April, he told The Daily Telegraph of London in a letter that his views had been distorted.

"I do not support attacks on Israeli civilians under any circumstances," he wrote. "I am in favor of the current efforts to achieve a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians."

©2002 Associated Press  

[Bahbah]

"I do not support attacks on Israeli civilians under any circumstances"

The words of his own mouth would seem to indicate quite the contrary.

[Cicero]

"Paulin did not respond to phone messages at Columbia University, where he is teaching this semester."

Well, and what does the President of Columbia University think of this antisemitic scum? Or maybe we should ask Professor Said?

[xm177e2]

The only thing Harvard could possibly do to p-ss me off more than inviting Paulin is disinviting him.

Those pukes have no spine and no respect for free speech. They are beneath contempt.

[beckett]

Paulin's appearance was reported on Glenn Reynold's Instapundit and Andrew Sullivan's blog yesterday, along with a link to Buell's email address. I emailed him, and I bet hundreds of others did likewise.

The power of the internet is demonstrated once again.

[beckett]

Paulin did not respond to phone messages at Columbia University, where he is teaching this semester...

He's teaching at Columbia! Nobody mentioned that in the stuff I read yesterday.

Imagine the gall of this guy --- and of the chair of the Engish Department at Columbia who must have invited him over from London. Shortly after 911 Paulin was calling for the outright murder of American Jews in Israel, specifically identifying "Brooklyn" Jews as the objects of his ire. And now, here he is, a 30 minute subway ride from Brooklyn, teaching kids the finer points of free verse and, one assumes, holding himself out as a role model for future poets --- the killing kind of poet.

Do the Jews in Brooklyn --- a large community --- know he is at Columbia? I sure hope they know it now!

[rmlew]

They know now!

[per loin]

Paulin does not sound like an Irish name. This bozo must be from the north.

[Napoleon Solo]

does anybody have an e-mail address for this POS?

[Hila]

Who cares what he thinks, there will be no two-state outcome, for that is not the solution.

[beckett]

He is Northern Irish raised in Belfast --- I believe a Protestant.

[beckett]

An email address for Paulin? Not me.

[Righty1]

Get real! The Irish while pithy and likeable in person are overwhelmingly socialist in outlook. As a group they are pretty good at using disarming sarcasm to cover their real feelings. Which on the whole are about as anti-capitalist and anti-west as the islamofascists.

[rockfish59]

Paulin's last name must really be Goebbels!

A bourgeois poet type!

[ladyjane]

Complete the following sentence

Get real! The ______________ while pithy and likeable in person are overwhelmingly socialist in outlook. As a group they are pretty good at using disarming sarcasm to cover their real feelings.

Choose one more more: French - Blacks -- Catholics -- Jews

[rmlew]

Paulin teaches at Columbia. The university hid his contact info today.

TOM PAULIN
Visiting Professor of English and Comparative Literature
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/english/facbio.html

Should you desire to contact Mr. Paulin you can do so at tnp2101@columbia.edu
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/english/offhrs.html

[rmlew]

unfortunately, much the same can be said for European Jews.

[Paul Atreides]

The wonderful blissful world of the tolerant left. And, they are still wondering why they lost.

[per loin]

Already real, and also correct in my surmisal as to his name not being an Irish one. His dad was a Brit, his mom a northern prot.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Harvard has no responsibility to allow every trashing talking idiot to speak at its campus and is finally showing some spine. It is about time some consideration of stopping these anti-Semites and Leftist shiiteheads from controlling campus intellectual life was manifested. Now spread it throughout the nation and send the leftists cowering to their bunkers.

Most crucial however is the purging of these pukes from the faculties of the Universities. It is about time to make Americans proud of their nation the dominant force on campuses.

He is probably a shitty poet as well.

Since this is not a public institution Free Speech is not an issue. That may be too esoteric for you to grasp however.