Pakistan writer Kamila Shamsie stripped of literary award for supporting pro-Palestinian Boycott

A German city has withdrawn its decision to award a British Pakistani writer a literature prize for supporting pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

A German city has withdrawn its decision to award British Pakistani writer Kamila Shamsie with literature prize for supporting pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Kamila Shamsie was being honoured with Nelly Sachs Prize, named after a Jewish poet, in honour of her literary work reported Al Jazeera.

But the eight-member jury decided to cancel its original vote from September 6, a statement by the city said on Wednesday. "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.

"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," the statement added. The 46-year-old writer, who was born and grew up in the Pakistani city of Karachi, has expressed discontent over the jury's decision.

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," the 46-year-old author said in a statement shared on Twitter.

She won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2018 and was longlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize. The Nelly Sachs Prize is awarded every two years, with the winner receiving a cash prize of USD 16,500. (ANI)

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