For a man who did the entire Adolf Hitler European Tour 1939-1945, the travel ban must feel quite restrictive.

Now, I'd like both Obama and Cameron to please explain why we're supporting a country that bans people merely for having an opinion.

"The great power of poetry and prose is their ability to help the reader empathise with someone of a different culture or history. "

Sadly, the Israeli leadership and its supporters seem no longer capable of empathy.

I mean, good god, dropping phosphorous bombs on a trapped civilian population?

It is notable that Nobel Laureate Günter Grass is in good company with other Nobel Laureates who are similarly critical of race-based, racist and genocidal Apartheid Israel, the list of such anti-racist Jewish Nobel Laureates including Albert Einstein and Harold Pinter (for details see “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/home ) and the list of such anti-racist non-Jewish Nobel Laureates including Jimmy Carter, Mairead Maguire, Nelson Mandela, Jose Saramago and Archbishop Desmond Tutu ( for details see “Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ ).

Gunter Grass has written a very sensible poem "What must be said" (read the English translation here: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/gunter-grasss-c... ) .

In short Gunter Grass sensibly decries German delivery of submarines to the State of Israel that could be used in a nuclear attack on Iran based on Israeli concerns that Iran is a military threat and a potential nuclear weapons state; expresses concern over potential German participation in an Israeli-adumbrated holocaust of Iranians that threatens the world as a whole; and recommends international inspection of nuclear programmes in both Iran and the State of Israel.

The travel ban placed on Nobel laureate Gunter Grass by Apartheid Israel is par for the course for this race-based, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish anti-Semitic, Nazi-style, nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, Apartheid rogue state - after all, in a process of egregious anti-Jewish anti-Semitism Apartheid Israel has variously detained, imprisoned, deported and/or excluded outstanding anti-racist Jewish writers and scholars such as Professor Norman Finkelstein (sacked from the zero Nobel Laureate (?) Catholic De Paul University at the behest of racist Zionists) , Professor Noam Chomsky (77 Nobel Laureate MIT) and Professor Richard Falk (35 Nobel Laureate Princeton University).

Apartheid Israel not only defames and excludes anti-racist Jews it practises "democracy by genocide" and grossly violates the human rights of Indigenous Palestinians (zero human rights for Occupied Palestinians; 800,000 Palestinian CHILDREN are abusively confined to the Gaza Concentration Cap, 10% are stunted according to Jewish British Labor MP David Milliband; only 6% of 12 million Palestinians can vote for the government ruling all of Palestine, albeit as Third Class citizens under Nazi-style race laws; 6 million Palestinians are not even allowed to step foot in their own country ).

Apartheid Israel also seriously restricts the freedom of speech of Jewish Israelis who I understand face a $100,000 fine if they express support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel.

Gunter Grass' comments were pretty mild. Race-based, genocidal, nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel is reported to have 400 nuclear weapons as well as biological and chemical weapons ( see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction ). Apartheid Israel should be immediately forced to relinquish such WMD and quit the West Bank, Gaza and Syrian Golan Heights and it should be subject to comprehensive Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) until it does so and removes all all race-based laws.

Racist Zionism is genocidal in theory and in obscene practice and has subverted and perverted the Western democracies to the point that it has successfully promoted a new anti-Jewish anti-Semitism directed against anti-racist Jews (such people representing the most outstanding Jewish intellectuals of our time; see "Jews Against Racist Zionism": https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/home) .

To protect anti-racist Jews, all anti-racist, decent values and democracy the racist Zionists should be be sidelined from public life as have been like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK i.e. they can say what they like but decent people will no more listen to them than they would to pro-Zionist, racist, neo-Nazi mass murderer Anders Breivik (since 1936 0.1 million Palestinians have been killed and a further 1.9 million have died from invasion-, occupation-, war-, expulsion - and occupation-imposed deprivation; there are 7 million Palestinian refugees; see "Palestinian Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ and the multi-author book by numerous anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish writers "The Plight of the Palestinians", Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ).