Related: Israeli parliament passes controversial legislation allowing MP expulsionThe poet is in many respects a metaphor for the Palestinian exile experience. It has been cited by former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir as evidence the poet believed Jews should abandon Israel, a claim Darwish denied. Among those who were unsurprised by Lieberman’s comments was Ghassan Khatib, a professor at Bir Zeit University – a Palestinian university, he said, which teaches texts by key Zionist thinkers including Herzl and Jabotinsky. He is regarded as one of Palestinian literature’s most important figures, a poet whose work has been translated and read around the globe, including in Hebrew. While nominally in charge of Army Radio, Lieberman has no power to intervene in its output.

Source: The Guardian July 23, 2016 19:22 UTC