Because of BDS support: Jury rethinks Nelly Sachs Award to Kamila Shamsie

The Nelly Sachs Prize of the city of Dortmund honors writers who stand up for "tolerance, respect and reconciliation" and for a peaceful coexistence. This year he was to go to the writer Kamila Shamsie - for her literary work, the bridges between cultures suggest. However, the Pakistani-British author advocates the controversial BDS movement ("boycott, divestment, sanctions"), which seeks to isolate Israel politically, economically, culturally and scientifically. Because that made now for criticism, the jury wants to rethink the award again.

When it became known that Shamsie was to receive the literary prize named after the Jewish writer Nelly Sachs, the Ruhrbarone blog first became aware of her attitude. Shamsie refuses to publish in Israel. This cites the website of the BDS campaign from a letter Shamsies to an Israeli publisher. On Wednesday, the author reaffirmed her support for BDS.

She challenged the city of Dortmund to find another laureate, said Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, anti-Semitism officer of the country, in the Ruhr news. With this decision, the city violated the policy against anti-Semitism, which was only adopted in March. "What's going wrong? BDS is priced, really?", Asked the Green politician Volker Beck on Twitter.

Hello @ citydortmund: What is going wrong? #BDS is priced, really? #nobds just lip service?
What does the anti-Semitism commissioner @sls_fdp Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger say about this? https://t.co/F6x6ivgHI9 @NRWpointDE
@ArminLaschet via @ruhrbarone

"At the time of the decision, none of the jurors knew that Kamila Shamsie had supported the BDS campaign in the past," the city of Dortmund announced in a statement. They want to check the decision again. The jury will advise in the coming days.

Every two years, the Nelly Sachs Prize is intended to honor people who produce outstanding creative achievements in the field of literary and spiritual life, and who work to improve cultural relations between peoples.

The award is worth 15,000 euros and will be awarded on 8 December. Past winners include Margaret Atwood, Rafik Schami, Christa Wolf and Milan Kundera.