The HyperTexts

Peleg Held aka Andrew Mandelbaum

Peleg Held has demanded that we remove his poetry from The HyperTexts because we chose to allow another poet to speak on our pages. We consider this to be an act of censorship, but we have agreed to comply with his demand, albeit grudgingly. Peleg Held is the pen name of Andrew Mandelbaum. The issue at hand is what Peleg Held/Andrew Mandelbaum calls "Holocaust denial." But we have never published any work that denies the Holocaust. Nor are we convinced that the other poet in question is a "Holocaust denier" because he published a poem, "Auschwitz Rose," written by Michael R. Burch, the editor of The HyperTexts, which is clearly in sympathy with Jewish victims of the Holocaust. And to be fair, there are many Jewish and Christian poets who deny the Nakba ("Catastrophe") of the Palestinians, yet no one demands that we remove their poetry from our pages. We take the firm position that the Holocaust really did happen, and that it was a great horror. But we also take the position that the Nakba really did happen, and that it also was a great horror: one that millions of Israelis and Americans continue to deny. And while the Holocaust is thankfully long over, the Nakba unfortunately continues to this day. Why should one horror be treated differently from another? So we see no reason to single out one poet for "special treatment." We do not approve of Holocaust denial or Nakba denial, but we are a poetry journal, and we believe it is better to have free speech than to practice censorship. If Peleg Held/Andrew Mandelbaum is concerned about Holocaust denial, he ought to be fair and demand that every Jewish and Christian poet who refuses to acknowledge the horrors of the Nakba should be censored. Until he does that, we consider his demand to be unjust and hypocritical, and have acceded to it under protest. The opinion expressed here is that of Michael R. Burch, the editor of The HyperTexts, and may not reflect the opinions of other people associated with THT. 

The HyperTexts