Madam, - The detention, interrogation and deportation of Jewish-American academic Norman Finkelstein (The Irish Times, May 26th) because of his outspoken criticism of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians is further proof, if any were required, that Israel is neither a democratic state nor one with regard for basic human rights. While 60 sixty years of existence, the state of Israel throws out - and bans for a decade - a free-thinking Jew who is the son of a Holocaust survivor.
Irish academics and members of Aosdána should immediately protest in writing to the Israelis over this blatant crime against the right to free speech. If an Irish author or academic were to be banned from Israel, be he Jewish or not, we'd never hear the end of it. Surely neither members of Aosdána, nor of the academic world, could support any regime or individual that sets out to stifle criticism? It would be interesting to know the argument by which Irish academics, writers, or artists, justify silence as an answer to Norman Finkelstein's outrageous treatment. - Yours, etc,
FRED JOHNSTON,
Carn Ard,
Circular Road,
Galway.