The Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany was accused of being closed to Palestinian voices after the awarding of a prize to author Adania Shibli was postponed indefinitely.
The organization of the LiBeraturpreis 2023 decided to postpone the award to the Palestinian writer Adania Shibli, scheduled for the Frankfurt Book Fair, due to “the war started by Hamas.”
“Due to the war started by Hamas, which is suffering millions of people in Israel and Palestine, the organization has decided not to hold the LiBeraturpreis award ceremony at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Litprom is trying to find a format and a appropriate environment for the initiative, later,” reads a statement published on the official website of the literary association Litprom, an independent organization of the book fair.
The head of Leya in Portugal, Pedro Sobral, regrets the decision, explains what this award consists of and says that he hopes that the distinction will indeed go to Adania Shibli.
“I consider it a shame because it is an award that, in fact, this writer deserved because, in addition, it is an award that focuses on the literary quality of the writer who receives it and who contributes a new voice to the world.” literature, also due to the fact that it is translated into a wide variety of European countries. These are parameters that belong to the awarding of the prize itself. I’m sorry and I hope that one day I can receive this award. Sometimes we forget what the main focus of this sector and of all those involved is, which is the intrinsic literary quality of the texts of writers who provide a new way of looking at reality through their fictions and the stories they tell us. “he explained to TSF Pedro Sobral.
Adania Shibli is the author of the book “A Minor Detail.” A work that Pedro Sobral describes as a journey towards mourning in the Gaza Strip, the territory that is now under fire.
“This is a fictional story that starts from a real case of the murder of a Palestinian mother and from there, from that real case, what this author brings us is what happens after the death of someone who, more than being Palestinian, She is a mother, wife, daughter, friend, sister… She has a very unique network of emotional ties, like each of us, and how those ties are later rebuilt in the face of that horror that is violent death – because we are talking about a murder. – in the occupied Palestinian territories, in this specific case in the Gaza Strip. And how it is that later in a completely chaotic and violent political, social and economic context these links are rebuilt. It is a great journey through grief, above all everything,” added the head of Leya in Portugal.
The statement underlines that “the awarding of the prize to Adania Shibli was never in doubt.” After Litprom’s decision became known, an open letter was made public, signed by more than a thousand personalities linked to the literary world, including the Nobel Prize winners in Literature Abdulrazak Gurnah, Annie Ernaux and Olga Tokarczuk, and other writers such as Colm Tóibín. , Ian McEwan, Lauren Groff and Judith Butler or the Israeli architect Eyal Weizman.
Subscribers will be alerted that “in the last few days, in several European countries, there have been cancellations of cultural events featuring Palestinian art, voices and stories”, making the Frankfurt Book Fair, “the largest and most important international book fair.” , as an example.
The subscribers refer to a publication shared three days ago on the fair’s official account on the social network Instagram, and edited on Monday, but in which the previously transcribed phrases remain.
The publication also knows that “the war against Israel, the suffering that derives from it and the restrictions on movement impacted the programming” of this edition, which takes place between Wednesday and Sunday, causing the cancellation of concerts of the singers Liraz and Rita, from Israel.
Originally published in 2017, “A Minor Detail” was nominated three years later for a National Book Award and an International Pulitzer, when the English version was published.
With its translation into German in 2022, the book won the LiBeraturpreis 2023, an annual award given to women from Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The Portuguese translation, direct from Arabic, of Adania Shibli’s book was published by Dom Quijote in March 2022.
The book, translated by Hugo Maia, is “a thriller based on real events that stars a young Palestinian woman who, after surviving a massacre perpetrated by Israeli soldiers in 1949, ends up being captured and raped and, after being murdered, buried in the sand. “
The Islamist group Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel on October 7 with the launch of thousands of rockets and the incursion of armed militiamen by land, sea and air.
In response, Israel bombed several Hamas infrastructures in the Gaza Strip from the air and imposed a total siege on the territory, cutting off water, fuel and electricity supplies.
The attacks have already caused thousands of deaths and injuries in both territories. The United Nations considers the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to be occupied territories.
Under international law, including the Geneva Convention, as an “occupying power,” Israel can control the entry of people and goods, but has certain obligations within the Gaza Strip.
Between 2008 and 2020, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict killed 5,590 Palestinians and 251 Israelis. Before this month’s attacks, more than 200 Palestinians and 30 Israelis had been killed in clashes, military operations and other incidents in 2023, already considered one of the deadliest years in the region since 2005. The United Nations called the ” worrying trend”. revealed a “growing despair about the future.”
Source: TSF
