Israel has banned German Nobel literature laureate Gunter Grass from visiting the country because of a critical poem he published last week.
Grass criticized what he called Western hypocrisy over Israel's nuclear program and described the country as a threat to "already fragile world peace" over its stance on Iran.
Gunter, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, has since said he was singling out the Israeli government and not the country as a whole.
But the Israeli Interior Minister has used an Israeli law that allows him to bar entry to ex-Nazis.
Grass, 84, admitted in 2006 that he served in the paramilitary Waffen-SS in the final months of World War II.
Grass criticized what he called Western hypocrisy over Israel's nuclear program and described the country as a threat to "already fragile world peace" over its stance on Iran.
Gunter, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, has since said he was singling out the Israeli government and not the country as a whole.
But the Israeli Interior Minister has used an Israeli law that allows him to bar entry to ex-Nazis.
Grass, 84, admitted in 2006 that he served in the paramilitary Waffen-SS in the final months of World War II.