A Terrorist at the Fair

The Guardian Hay Festival is Britain’s biggest annual literary fair. “We celebrate great writing in every medium in Britain and around the world. All our Festivals are informal, accessible and great fun,” proclaims its homepage. This year, one of the “fun” speakers at the fair in bucolic Wales was Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad. A member of Hamas for 25 years, Hamad is also the leader of the Islamic Salvation Party. Quoted by the BBC last fall, he said, “Israel should be wiped from the face of the Earth. It is an animal state that recognises no human worth. It is a cancer that should be eradicated.”

In the Guardian on May 27, columnist Katharine Viner described Hamad in rather gushing tones. “It's only when you hear a person from Hamas talking that you realise how rare it is to hear a person from Hamas talking,” she marveled. “He reminded the audience that he believes, as every Palestinian believes, that Yasser Arafat was poisoned,” wrote Viner, who along with actor Alan Rickman co-edited the successful play My Name Is Rachel Corrie. “In relation to the demand for Hamas to recognise the state of Israel,” Viner noted, “he twice reminded the audience that Arafat recognised Israel at Oslo in 1993, and most Palestinians don’t think much good came out of that.” Oh. Well. In that case....

Guardian readers posted comments regarding Viner’s article.

“He and Hamas have my full support,” asserted a reader using the nic Banmeifyoucan.

“I don't believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish nation,” avowed SpikeParis.

“I think the town of Hay should consider itself lucky it wasn't bombed by the Israeli Air Force,” added Neoconned.

Later in the thread, SpikeParis reappeared: “ I'd rather have a hundred Qassam missiles fired at me than one Israeli bomb dropped on me.”

Xman was outraged. “Here is what the Guardian is advocating,” he declared, then quoted from the Hamas charter: “Israel ... will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.... There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.”

“What a wasted opportunity,” quipped Charliethemagiccat. “You could have asked him what his favourite animal was, or which football team he supported.”