Harvard cancels planned appearance by poet

BOSTON -- After student complaints, Harvard University said Tuesday it had canceled a reading by an Irish poet who compared U.S.-born settlers in the West Bank to Nazis and said they should be "shot dead."

Tom Paulin, an Oxford University lecturer, was scheduled to appear Thursday as part of the English Department's Morris Gray Lecture series.

But in an e-mail to English majors Tuesday, department chair Lawrence Buell said the reading had been canceled "by mutual consent of the poet and the English Department."

In April, Paulin was quoted in the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram Weekly, saying American Jewish settlers should be "shot dead."

"I think they are Nazis, racists, I feel nothing but hatred for them," he said.

In the same interview, Paulin said he understands "how suicide bombers feel," but suggested guerrilla warfare would be more effective because attacks on civilians could create a sense of solidarity.