Author Henning Mankell on Gaza Convoy Raid: 'First It Was Piracy, and Then It Was Kidnapping'

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SPIEGEL: For European intellectuals, there is only one country in the Middle East where they could live the way they do at home: Israel, a free, democratic country with an open society. Isn't equating it with South Africa hugely exaggerated?

Mankell: No. I attended the Palestinian Festival of Literature in Hebron last year. I was scheduled to speak at the opening event in the Palestinian National Theater in Jerusalem. We were about to begin when the door opened and the Israeli military disrupted the event. I asked them what the reason was, and I was told that I was a security risk. I, an author, I said? I told them I was there to talk about culture. There will be no discussion, they replied, and the event was over. Israel is not an open society -- it just pretends to be. The people are treated just like back then in South Africa.

SPIEGEL: Is Hamas a source of hope for you, as the ANC once was?

Mankell: I am extremely critical of Hamas. I don't like the political developments in Gaza at all. However, I don't know enough about the issue.

SPIEGEL: Can an Islamist organization like Hamas, with its cult of martyrdom, its contempt for women and its racism, even be a serious partner for a left-wing intellectual?

Mankell: I took part in a humanitarian attempt to break through the naval blockade of Gaza. It's an important step to alleviate Palestinian suffering, but it shouldn't be confused with the policies of Hamas. If my criticism of Hamas had prevented me from being part of this campaign, I would have discredited myself intellectually and morally. I can do the one thing, but that doesn't mean I have to give up the other.

SPIEGEL: In South Africa, Nelson Mandela appeared at the right moment, turning the ANC into a political organization that created a shared country for blacks and whites. How do you envision the future of Israel and the Palestinian territories?

Mankell: Unfortunately, there is no Mandela in Israel, nor is there an F.W. de Klerk. There are really only two options: the South African solution or the two-state solution. I don't know what will happen. But if everything remains the way it is, there will be an explosion. That's why the blockade must end. It's a first step, if nothing else. It could lead to a real dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, but how that comes about is their business.

SPIEGEL: This conflict is complicated enough, but it probably doesn't even constitute the biggest threat to peace in the region at the moment. That is posed by Iran, with its controversial nuclear program and its prediction that Israel will disappear from the map.

Mankell: I am very concerned, because I don't trust this president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) and the mullahs. They want to have any weapon that can be used to destroy Israel. Naturally we cannot accept that.

SPIEGEL: But what do you want to do? Campaigns like this one can be directed against a democratic country like Israel. The Iranian government wouldn't even let things get that far.

Mankell: I had an invitation to a literature festival in Tehran, which I turned down.

SPIEGEL: Why?

Mankell: Because Iran puts writers and intellectuals in prison and makes some of them disappear. I can't go to a country like that.

SPIEGEL: Why don't you go there and make the repression public?

Mankell: I wouldn't be able to do what I would like to do. They would misuse me for propaganda purposes.

SPIEGEL: And you didn't have this concern with the Gaza campaign?

Mankell: I saw what I saw. I felt what I felt. I thought what I thought. I saw what happened to people, and that's what I want to report on.

SPIEGEL: European intellectuals are deeply divided over Israel. On the one side are the critics of Israel like you, the famous Swedish author, and on the other side are the critics of Islam like Leon de Winter, the famous Dutch author, who calls you a "useful idiot" of Hamas. What do you say to him?

Mankell: Of course that's not what I am, but I would like to have a discussion with anyone who is of a decidedly different opinion, whether it's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Leon de Winter. But it doesn't make any sense to shout at each other. By the way, I have many Jewish friends, my books are published in Hebrew and are bestsellers, and a branch of my family is Jewish.

SPIEGEL: What role are you playing at the moment? Are you still an author or are you already a politician?

Mankell: I'm an eyewitness, because I was there. So much false information has already been disseminated, so I make an offer to people: I was on one of the six boats, and I can tell you what happened there and what it means.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Mankell, thank you for this interview.

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• Part 1: 'First It Was Piracy, and Then It Was Kidnapping'
• Part 2: 'They Are Thieves'
• Part 3: 'The Blockade Must End'