Avigdor Lieberman Compares Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish to Hitler
Image by Getty Images
JERUSALEM — Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman compared an Army Radio program on the works of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish to praising Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”
The station, whose government funding has been questioned in recent weeks, has come under fire for broadcasting the program on Tuesday.
Liberman at a meeting Thursday with Army Radio chief Yaron Dekel said, according to Israel’s Channel 2, that Darwish, “who called in his poetry for the expulsion of the Jewish people from the State of Israel and who wrote that ‘the flesh of the occupier will be my sustenance,’ cannot be part of the Israeli narrative program that was aired.”
“By that logic, the complete legacy of the Mufti al-Husseini or the literary merits of ‘Mein Kampf’ could also have been included,” the defense chief said.
Army Radio has defended its decision to broadcast educational programming on the work of the poet and author, considered the Palestinian national poet, as part of a series on formative Israeli texts. Darwish died in 2008.
Liberman does not have the authority to dictate any of Army Radio’s programming, the Attorney General’s office has determined.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
