Harold Pinter may have been an innovative playwright, but in death he is receiving accolades as a great moral force in politics as well. Pinter’s political views were in fact fanatical, irresponsible and utterly without nuance. (See my previous remarks here.) As Johann Hari reminds us, Pinter was an apologist for Serbian fascism and ultra-nationalism, going so far as to join the disreputable International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic. Hari:
When Serbian nationalism – stoked and stroked by Milosevic – began to ravage the Balkans in the 1990s, Pinter’s response was simple and visceral: whatever the US and UK governments are for, I’m against. Blair and Clinton are condemning Milosevic? Right, sign me up for the defense. The Committee he sat on right up to Miolsevic’s death – headed by Jared Israel, a friend of Milosevic – was not simply calling for the Serb to be given a fair trial, a demand all reasonable people supported. It called for Milosevic to be released on the grounds that he was not guilty. In fact, the website bragging Pinter’s signature describes him as a “the strongest pillar of peace and stability in this region.”
So when there was ethnic cleansing two days’ drive from Auschwitz, Pinter’s response was to defend the aggressor and attack the victims.
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