A New York writer’s ceremony to receive a “political thought” award was called off when his German sponsors pulled out after his essay comparing Gaza to Nazi-era Jewish ghettos.
Masha Gessen, who is Jewish, was due to receive the Hannah Arendt Prize on Friday, but it was postponed until Saturday after the Heinrich Böll Foundation criticized her latest article in the New Yorker.
Gessen, who uses the pronoun they/them, published an article last Friday titled “In the Shadow of the Holocaust,” which struck a chord with the foundation, particularly a passage in which the writer compares the situation in Gaza to the “Jewish ghettos of occupied Europe.”
The well-known journalist, 56, whose grandfather died in the Holocaust, wrote that the ghettos “had no prison guards” before saying that “Gaza is not policed by the occupiers, but by a local force.”
Masha Gessen, who is Jewish, was due to receive the Hannah Arendt Prize, but was suspended after the Heinrich Böll Foundation criticized her latest article in the New Yorker. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP “This statement is not an offer for open discussion; It does not help to understand the conflict in the Middle East. This statement is unacceptable to us and we reject it,” said the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Heinrich Böll Foundation
The Heinrich Böll Foundation highlighted that passage when it issued a statement announcing that it was withdrawing from the ceremony and that it was “in agreement with the Bremen Senate,” where the ceremony would be held in Germany.
The organization accused the Russian-American writer of implying that “Israel intends to liquidate Gaza as if it were a Nazi ghetto.”
“This statement is not an offer for open discussion; It does not help to understand the conflict in the Middle East. This statement is unacceptable to us and we reject it,” she wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
On Monday, two founding members of the Hannah Arendt Prize, which honors the 20th-century Jewish political philosopher, called for the political thought prize to be canceled in a letter to donors, citing Gessen’s New Yorker article, according to the outlet. German Die Zeit.
Gessen wrote “In the Shadow of the Holocaust” last week and has received criticism for comparing the situation in Gaza to the “Jewish ghettos of occupied Europe.” fake images
Founding members Lothar Probst and Helga Trüpel said the author “disqualified herself [sic] with statements about the Middle East conflict in a way that would discredit everyone involved in the awards ceremony, but especially the German Jewish thinker Hannah Arendt.”
Gessen led to to address what they called “the Arendt Prize debacle.”
“You would think that with all the attention on the Arendt Prize debacle, I would be inundated with calls and texts from the media. You would be wrong. No German journalists have been contacted for comment. An American journalist did it. All reports have been made without any input or reaction from me. Inaccuracies accumulate
They later told the Washington Post that “the only way we can learn from history is if we compare it to the present. Actually, that’s our own tool. We are no smarter or better or more moral than people who lived 100 years ago. The only thing we have that they did not have is the awareness that the Holocaust was possible and remains possible. It’s a lesson, not a particularly complicated one.”
The New York Post has contacted Gessen for comment.
Despite the withdrawal, Gessen will receive the award a day later at an unknown location, according to Die Zeit.
The writer, who began contributing to the New Yorker in 2014 and became an editor in 2017, was receiving the award for his work involving Russia and the United States and the political landscape of both countries.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn