The Israeli poet and author, Yitzhak Laor, visited Dublin last week as part of an alternative event organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which boycotted the reading by AB Yehoshua.

Laor is the editor of the Hebrew quarterly, Mita'am: A Journal of Literature and Radical Thought, and also writes literary criticism for the Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz. A long-time activist for Palestinian rights, he is a respected intellectual whose works have been published in 12 languages.

He was invited to speak in Dublin on how "Israeli intellectuals on the left wing of the Zionist spectrum provide a veneer of respectability for the state".

Laor is a controversial figure on the Israeli left, a movement which he believes has been a failure. During his visit to Dublin, Laor was openly critical of his government, arguing that the Israeli quest for separation has become a process of ghettoisation for the Palestinians.

Laor, who served in the army, believes the Israeli demand for security is unfair because it does not recognise the security concerns of Palestinians who live in fear of the Israeli army.

An outspoken opponent of the separation wall, his talk in Dublin sparked a lively debate, particularly about the international community's financial boycott of the Hamas government.

"I'm ashamed of my country, of my government and of the violence of the Israeli state," Laor told his Dublin audience.