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Kamila Shamsie stripped of German literary award over pro-Palestine stance

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The German city of Dortmund has rescinded its decision to award Kamila Shamsie a literary prize, citing her support for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as the reason.

The British Pakistani author was announced as this year's winner of the Nelly Sachs Prize (named after a Jewish poet and Nobel Laureate) earlier this month.

However, in a statement yesterday, the organisers shared that the eight-member jury has reversed its decision and that the 2019 award will not be handed to any author.

"Despite prior research, the members of the jury were not aware that the author has been participating in the boycott measures against the Israeli government for its Palestinian policies since 2014," the statement said.

They added, "Shamsie's political positioning to actively participate in the cultural boycott as part of the BDS (Boycott Disinvestment Sanctions) campaign against the Israeli government is clearly in contradiction to the statutory objectives of the award and the spirit of the Nelly Sachs Prize."

Shamsie condemned the decision in her response and said it was a "matter of outrage that the BDS movement that campaigns against the government of Israel for its acts of discrimination and brutality against Palestinians should be held up as something shameful and unjust".

"It is a matter of great sadness to me that a jury should bow to pressure and withdraw a prize from a writer who is exercising her freedom of conscience and freedom of expression," she wrote on Twitter.

Many came forward in support of Shamsie on social media:

In May, the German parliament passed a motion condemning the BDS movement as antisemitic. The movement was launched in 2005 by Palestinians to generate international pressure on Israel to respect Palestinian human rights.

https://images.dawn.com/news/118370...rman-literary-award-over-pro-palestine-stance
 
Well done to the committee, nothing brings more attention to BDS than something like this.

I'm sure the new winner will be thrilled at the thought of not really deserving it.
 
What a strange reason to take away the award!
 
RIP free speech.

Apparently her literary achievements void if she takes a humanitarian stance.
 
This was an award in Germany, remember their history and this award was named after a Jewish author. Not surprised she has been stripped off the award.

Edit: the award guys should have done their due diligence before awarding her. This is embarrassing for them and she has the right to feel violated
 
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This was an award in Germany, remember their history and this award was named after a Jewish author. Not surprised she has been stripped off the award.

Edit: the award guys should have done their due diligence before awarding her. This is embarrassing for them and she has the right to feel violated

Germans have a lot of antisemitism phobia.

So in short, Europeans butchered Jews so because of this shame they dont like to see Jews being crticised even ifs its legitimate. Fools.
 
Hundreds of authors protest after Kamila Shamsie's book award is revoked

Arundhati Roy, JM Coetzee and Sally Rooney are among more than 250 writers who have defended Kamila Shamsie after a German literary prize withdrew an award over her support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

In an open letter published today in the London Review of Books, the writers, who also include Noam Chomsky, Amit Chaudhuri, William Dalrymple, Yann Martel, Jeanette Winterson and Ben Okri, say that the Nelly Sachs prize has chosen to “punish an author for her human rights advocacy”. Michael Ondaatje, a former winner of the award, is one of the signatories to the letter.

The judges had initially chosen Shamsie for writing that “builds bridges between societies”, but changed their minds on learning she backed the BDS movement, saying that her “political positioning to actively participate in the cultural boycott … contrasts with the claim of the Nelly Sachs prize to proclaim and exemplify reconciliation among peoples and cultures”.

Shamsie’s supporters ask: “What is the meaning of a literary award that undermines the right to advocate for human rights, the principles of freedom of conscience and expression and the freedom to criticise? … Without these, art and culture become meaningless luxuries.”

The letter had more than 100 signatories a day after it began to be circulated by the writers Ahdaf Soueif and Omar Robert Hamilton, co-founders of the Palestine festival of literature.

The revoking of Shamsie’s award follows a motion passed in May by the German parliament that labelled the BDS movement antisemitic. But the letter writers point to a decision earlier this month in the administrative court of Cologne ruling that Bonn city council’s decision to exclude the German-Palestinian Women’s Association from a cultural festival because of its support for BDS was unjustified.

The writers highlight the statement last year from more than 40 progressive Jewish organisations arguing that conflating anti-Jewish racism with opposition to Israel’s policies and system of occupation and apartheid “undermines both the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality and the global struggle against antisemitism”.

The letter also criticises the German city of Dortmund, which runs the award, for refusing to make public Shamsie’s written response to the decision.

Shamsie, winner of the UK’s Women’s prize for fiction, had called it a “matter of outrage that the BDS movement (modelled on the South African boycott) that campaigns against the government of Israel for its acts of discrimination and brutality against Palestinians should be held up as something shameful and unjust”.

Asked to comment, a spokeswoman for the city of Dortmund said that the jury had decided not to give any further statements. “The council has legitimated the jury of Nelly Sachs prize to choose an awardee,” she said. “The jury is autonomous in its decision and gave reasons in the press release. There has been no council meeting after the jury’s decision, so the withdrawal has not been a topic for the council yet.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...t-after-kamila-shamsies-book-award-is-revoked
 
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