A British-Pakistani author has been stripped of a prestigious German literary award over her anti-Israel stance, a media report said here on Thursday. Earlier this month, the German city of Dortmund announced novelist Kamila Shamsie as this year’s winner of the Nelly Sachs Prize — named after a Jewish poet — in honour of her literary work.
But the eight-member jury decided to cancel its original vote from September 6. It also decided not to nominate another winner for 2019, Geo News reported. In a statement on Wednesday, the jury said: “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 author has said that it is sad that a jury should bow to external pressure.
ADVERTISEMENT