Iranian official praises Günter Grass for poem attacking Israel

An Iranian official praised Günter Grass on Saturday for the German author’s new poem, which is highly critical of Israel.

The Iranian Deputy Cultural Minister Javad Shamaqdari said in a letter that Grass’ poem is a revelation of “truth that may awaken the silent conscience” of the West. The semi-official Fars news agency posted the letter on its website.

Grass, a Nobel literature laureate, has faced a severe backlash over the poem at the hands of Israeli officials.

In the poem, published in European dailies earlier this week, the 84-year-old German author criticized what he described as Western hypocrisy over Israel’s nuclear program, and he labeled the country a threat to an “already fragile world peace” over its stance on Iran.

Grass has since been accused of anti-Semitism, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuked his views as “ignorant and objectionable.”

In an interview published Saturday by the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Grass explained that he was criticizing the Jewish state’s government, not the country as a whole. He said he sought foremost to single out the policies of “Netanyahu’s current government.”