Gideon Polya, “Harold Pinter 1930-2008. Death of outstanding humanitarian & Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter”, MWC News, submitted 26 December 2008. Best regards, Gideon Polya
Harold Pinter 1930-2008. Death of outstanding humanitarian & Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter
Outstanding Jewish British playwright, humanitarian and 2005 Literature Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter died on Christmas Eve, 2008. The World has lost an outstanding writer and a courageous spokesperson for peace, human rights and victims of Anglo-American savagery.
For an obituary see that by Mel Gussow and Ben Brantley in the International Herald Tribune entitled “Harold Pinter, Nobel-winning Playwright, dead at 78”: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/26/arts/26pinter.php . For an outline of Harold Pinter’s enormously productive and inspiring life see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Pinter .
Harold Pinter was famous for his plays that captured the uncertainty, ambiguity and inner fears of Anglo-Celtic lives in the post-war era and which earned him the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005.
Harold Pinter was also famous as a courageous and articulate spokesperson for the cause of peace and for the human rights of Palestinians, Iraqis, Latin Americans and others trampled by violent US imperialism. His Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech in 2005 (see: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html ) slammed Anglo-American war crimes and demanded the arraignment of the main perpetrators before the International Criminal Court.
Below is a statement from the Brussell’s Tribunal on the occasion of the death of this outstanding writer and humanitarian Harold Pinter, QUOTE:
“We are sad to learn that Harold Pinter, honorary member of the BRussells Tribunal, died today, Christmas day 2008, at the age of 78.
The last thing he wrote was a contribution for the 95 Statements commemorating five years of war in Iraq (10 March 2008) - http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Messages190308.htm [PDF: click here]:
“The invasion of Iraq was a criminal act.
The occupation of Iraq remains a criminal act.
The British government under Blair and the United States administration are war criminals.
It’s as simple as that.”
The BRussells Tribunal is very sad to lose one of its most outspoken and courageous members. Harold Pinter could have joined the “silent choir” of politicians, journalists, artists, writers who did nothing to prevent the US invasions in Afghanistan, Iraq….. But he did speak, and his Nobel Lecture when he received the Nobel Prize in 2005 , shows a great writer with a conscience, a human being with an aspiration to justice seldom seen.
The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading – as a last resort – all other justifications having failed to justify themselves – as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people. We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'. Harold Pinter, honorary member of the BRussells Tribunal - Nobel Lecture
- 07 Dec 2005
It couldn’t be clearer. The Iraqi people, the peace movement worldwide and every honest man who wants to see justice prevail, will remember Harold Pinter not only as one of the greatest authors of his generation, but also as a beacon of wisdom and sanity. Harold Pinter did what every intellectual ought to do: stand against the imperial aspirations of the USA and part of Europe.
We will always remember him, and so will the Iraqi people.
For the BRussells Tribunal committee
Dirk Adriaensens.” END QUOTE.
I was privileged to have also been invited by the BRussell’s Tribunal to comment on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the illegal and war criminal Anglo-American-Australian invasion of Iraq and my comments, entitled “Iraqi Genocide” and detailing the horrendous loss of life in that atrocity, followed (in alphabetic sequence) immediately after those of Harold Pinter (see: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Messages190308.htm ).
Nine months after that summation, the present estimate is of 2 million violent and non-violent excess deaths in post-invasion Occupied Iraq; 0.6 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths; and 6 million refugees. Indeed excess deaths in Iraq in the period 1990-2008 total about 4 million and under-5 infant deaths total 1.8 million. This is an ongoing Iraqi Holocaust and indeed an Iraqi Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention.
In his 2005 Nobel Prize Acceptance Lecture entitled “Art, Truth and Politics” Harold Pinter stated: “How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice.”
The violent and non-violent avoidable deaths associated with the Bush Wars 1990-2008 now total 9-11 million (see MWC New “9-11 excuse for US global genocide. The real 9-11 atrocity: millions dead 99-11 million) in Bush Wars”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/25184/42/ ). We can ask Harold Pinter’s question again: “How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal?” 9-11 million? More than enough, I would have thought.
Edmund Burke, who excoriated 18th century Anglo crimes in South Asia (see: “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability”: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) famously stated “Evil happens when good men do nothing” . The Holocaust-dimension carnage of the Bush Wars has happened – and CONTINUES to happen - because of mainstream media, academics, politicians, journalists and writers simply IGNORING and looking the other way.
Harold Pinter was one of relatively few public intellectuals who stood up publicly for human rights and peace and who protested the carnage of Anglo-American wars. Writers of the ethical and humanitarian MWC News have followed the same path as the inspirational Harold Pinter.
We must all follow Harold Pinter’s courageous example. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. We cannot walk by on the other side.