The city of Bochum is suspending an originally planned award to the author and Bachmann Prize winner Sharon Dodua Otoo because of possible support for a boycott of Israel. On November 10th, a jury voted in favor of the German-British writer (“Adas Raum”) as the next recipient of the Peter Weiss Prize, worth 15,000 euros. The city announced on Tuesday that it had recently become known that she supported an organization associated with the BDS.
The matter is being examined. If the allegations prove true, awarding the prize to Otoo would be unthinkable, it was said. A comment from the author was not immediately available on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for her publisher, S. Fischer, pointed out that the author is currently in Australia and may therefore not be able to respond immediately.
Anti-Semitic campaign
BDS stands for “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions”. The campaign calls for a boycott of the State of Israel and Israeli products because of its actions against Palestinians. The Bundestag condemned the BDS movement in a resolution dated May 17, 2019. Their argumentation patterns and methods are anti-Semitic.
The North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament had already condemned the campaign in 2018 as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel and called on state institutions and municipalities not to support groups close to it. Many communities, including Bochum, joined.
Otoo, who lives in Berlin and was awarded the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize in 2016, appears by name on the “Artists for Palestine UK” campaign page as one of more than 1,500 supporters.
The artists signing there commit themselves to a cultural boycott of Israel in support of the Palestinians, for example by refusing professional invitations to the country or funding of their work by the Israeli government. The blog “Ruhrbarone” reported on it after the city announced Otoo as the future winner on Monday. The award was scheduled to be presented on March 10th. (dpa)