<YONHAP PHOTO-0086> -CORRECTS TYPO IN NOBEL PRIZE - FILE - The Oct. 15, 2009 file photo shows German writer and Nobel Prize laureate for literature Guenter Grass during an interview with journalists of the Associated Press in the library of Steidl publishers in Goettingen, Germany. Grass is sharply criticizing Israel amid tensions with Iran and what he describes as Western hypocrisy over Israel's suspected nuclear program. In a prose poem published Wednesday, April 4, 2012 in German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the 84-year-old Grass highlighted Berlin's recent sale to Israel of a submarine able to "send all-destroying warheads where the existence of a single nuclear bomb is unproven." (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)/2012-04-06 03:48:27/ <저작권자 ⓒ 1980-2012 ㈜연합뉴스. 무단 전재 재배포 금지.> Guenter Grass
-CORRECTS TYPO IN NOBEL PRIZE - FILE - The Oct. 15, 2009 file photo shows German writer and Nobel Prize laureate for literature Guenter Grass during an interview with journalists of the Associated Press in the library of Steidl publishers in Goettingen, Germany. Grass is sharply criticizing Israel amid tensions with Iran and what he describes as Western hypocrisy over Israel's suspected nuclear program. In a prose poem published Wednesday, April 4, 2012 in German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the 84-year-old Grass highlighted Berlin's recent sale to Israel of a submarine able to "send all-destroying warheads where the existence of a single nuclear bomb is unproven." (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)/2012-04-06 03:48:27/ <저작권자 ⓒ 1980-2012 ㈜연합뉴스. 무단 전재 재배포 금지.> Guenter Grass

Guenter Grass

BERLIN (AP) ― Guenter Grass says Israel’s decision to bar him from visiting the country following his poem criticizing the Jewish state reminds him of similar steps that dictatorial governments have taken against him.

The German literature Nobel laureate said in a reaction piece published by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday that he has previously only been barred from entering a nation by then Communist-ruled East Germany and the military junta in Myanmar about 25 years ago.

Grass says the tone of Israel’s announcement Sunday reminded him of the reasoning then given by East Germany’s spy minister Erich Mielke.

In his “What Must Be Said’’ poem, Grass criticized what he called Western hypocrisy over Israel’s nuclear program and labeled the country a threat to “already fragile world peace’’ over its belligerent stance regarding Iran.


koreaherald@heraldcorp.com