Royal Mint rejected Dahl coin over his ‘anti-Semitism’
THE Royal Mint decided against celebrating the life of Roald Dahl with a coin due to concerns over his anti-Semitic views.
Its decision not to mark the centenary of the writer’s birth in 2016 is revealed in the minutes of the Royal Mint’s sub-committee meeting in 2014.
Instead, it opted for coins celebrating William Shakespeare and Beatrix Potter.
The minutes, seen by The Guardian, state: ‘The themes set out below were considered but not recommended... Associated with anti- Semitism and not regarded as an author of the highest reputation.’
Dahl, who died in 1990 aged 74, remains beloved by children and adults for books such as the BFG, Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Many of his stories have been adapted into hit Hollywood films and he was honoured by the Royal Mail with a set of stamps.
In 1983, after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon a year earlier, he told the New Statesman: ‘There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non- Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.’ And in 1990, he told The Independent: ‘They [the Israelis] killed 22,000 civilians when they bombed Beirut. It was very much hushed up in the newspapers because they are primarily Jewish-owned.’
He added: ‘I’m certainly antiIsraeli and I’ve become antiSemitic in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism. I think they should see both sides.
‘It’s the same old thing: we all know about Jews and the rest of it. There aren’t any non- Jewish publishers anywhere, they control the media – jolly clever thing to do – that’s why the president of the United States has to sell all this stuff to Israel.’
Amanda Bowman, of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, praised the Mint’s decision, saying: ‘Many of his utterances were unambiguously anti-Semitic. He may have been a great children’s writer but he was also a racist and this should be remembered.’
A Royal Mint spokesman said: ‘There are usually a large number of subjects nominated and it is therefore not possible to feature them all. So the aim is to create a shortlist of themes that reflect the most significant and appropriate events for national commemoration. On this occasion, the committee selected other themes to feature on coins for that particular year.’