German author banned for defending Palestine
Ted Honderich, a well-known German philosopher and author, reacted angrily to anti-Semitism charges Friday after his publisher withdrew a book in which he defends the moral right of Palestinians to attack Israel.
Honderich, in an open letter to the Frankfurter Rundshau newspaper, demanded the resignation of chief critic Micha Brumlik from his professorial post at Frankfurt University and said Brumlik’s accusation showed “audacious stupidity.”
“This terrible disservice to truth and decency is not consistent with academic principle,” Honderich wrote in the letter, according to AFP. “I therefore ask you to consider the dismissal immediately of Micha Brumlik from his post.”
The controversy centres around Honderich’s book “After the Terror: A Manifesto,” written in response to the September 11 attacks in New York.
In the work, Honderich contends the West is partly responsible for the atrocities, having paid little heed to increasing disparities between the haves and have-nots of the world.
Brumlik, who is also a director of an institute that deals with Holocaust-related issues, pressured Honderich’s German publisher Suhrkamp to pull the book.
Suhrkamp said Honderich had become increasingly radical and that they agreed to withdraw the book after the philosopher likened the Palestinian struggle to that of the Jews between 1939 and 1945.
Suhrkamp said it won’t reprint the book and will give up its publishing rights.
Honderich called Brumlik’s charge of anti-Semitism “despicable.”