A German foundation has said it will no longer be awarding a prize for political thinking to a leading Russian-American journalist after criticizing as “unacceptable” a recent essay by the writer in which they made a comparison between Gaza and a Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe.

  • Silverseren@kbin.socialOP
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    1 year ago

    The hypocrisy of the Heinrich Böll Foundation (and the German government in general) is incredible.

    Here you have a Jewish person who is a journalist and a renowned political thinker who was being given the award for being someone who “reports on power games and totalitarian tendencies as well as civil disobedience and the love of freedom”.

    They 100% have the position, right, and accuracy to be comparing the state of Gaza currently to the WWII ghettos.

    Edit: Something else to note. The Foundation made this statement "“But Masha Gessen’s views should not be honored with a prize intended to commemorate the Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt”.

    And I can’t help but laugh. Do they not know Arendt’s past stance on Israel? She was literally one of the first world-renowned Jewish anti-Zionists.

    She literally compared the Likud party to the Nazis!

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      This is the real, actual cancel culture, and usual suspects are silent, as expected.

    • febra@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Do they not know Arendt’s past stance on Israel?

      Partly jewish, German citizen here. I’ll answer this for you. No, they don’t. They never worked out their own history. It’s all just teathre.

    • ShroOmeric@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Hannah Arendt would be punished as antisemite in today Germany. What a cesspool that country is becoming once again.

    • throwaway007@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 year ago

      Someone had commented that, in today’s Germany, she would not have received the award which is named after her own name.