The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel has reported that Lebanese-American artist Walid Raad has been denied a prize he was set to receive because he refused to denounce the Boycott, Divestment,….
The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel has reported that Lebanese-American artist Walid Raad has been denied a prize he was set to receive because he refused to denounce the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to apply pressure to the Israeli goverment to change its policies towards Palestinians. The German city of Aachen had selected Raad to receive an award for his fifteen-year project The Atlas Group, which deals with the history of civil war and social upheavel in Lebanon. But the mayor of Aachen, Marcel Philipp, issued a statement saying that “according to research, we have to assume that the designated prize-winner is a supporter of the BDS movement.” When Raad’s declined to distance himself from BDS, the award was withdrawn. Read the original article in German here , or a translated version (via Google) here .