Novelist Alice Walker professed ignorance last week about who perpetrated the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Walker, a vociferous critic of Israel, also refused to say if Hamas is a terrorist organization.
This reporter caught up with Walker when she spoke at an April 24 New York University conference on leftist historian Howard Zinn.
The following is the exchange with the literary doyenne, who gained worldwide fame with her 1982 novel “The Color Purple”:
Reporter: Do you think Hamas is a terrorist organization?
Alice Walker: I don’t know.
Reporter: Well, when they blow up Jews on Israeli buses, is that terrorism?
Walker: I don’t know. I was not there. You’re all dressed up. Why are you wearing a tie?
Reporter: Because this is a formal occasion. Do you think 9/11 was an act of terrorism?
Walker: Yes. But I don’t know who did it. Do you?
Reporter: Yeah, the 9/11 hijackers. Do you think the government did it?
Walker: I don’t know.
Reporter: Back to Hamas. Do you think they are a terrorist organization?
Walker, normally quite loquacious, then walked away.
But Walker has previously indicated that she thought Osama bin Laden was responsible.
As war loomed in Afghanistan just weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, Walker told the Village Voice that the United States should shower bin Laden with love instead of invading his host country. She said the attacks should be considered in the context of his good deeds.
“In a war on Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden will either be left alive, while thousands of impoverished, frightened people are bombed into oblivion around him, or he will be killed in a bombing attack for which he seems quite prepared.
“But what would happen to his cool armor if he could be reminded of all the good, nonviolent things he has done? Further, what would happen to him if he could be brought to understand the preciousness of the lives he has destroyed? I firmly believe the only punishment that works is love.”
Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, who accused Walker of “bigotry” in 2012 when she refused to allow the translation of The Color Purple into Hebrew, told The Daily Caller that Walker had good reason to be so tongue-tied.
“She is afraid to be challenged on her bigoted views. She’s terrified of answering questions lest there be a follow up,” Dershowitz said.
