It is an intellectual battle, of ideas and to win over public opinion, but the conflict between Israel and Palestine has reached the most important book fair in the world, Frankfurt. The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, a citizen and author of the guest country, caused irritation at the opening ceremony of the fair. His speech, which focused on a criticism of Israel's policy, was interrupted several times by the public, according to Efe.
Zizek began by being clear: “Don't applaud now, wait for what I'm going to say, maybe later no one will applaud.” “I want to make it clear,” he continued, “I condemn the Hamas attacks without mitigation and give Israel the right to defend itself.”
The philosopher explored the origins of terror and said that, just as power corrupts, “persecution also corrupts the victims.” Shouts began to be heard from the audience, accusing the speaker of relativizing terrorism and comparing the Israeli Government to Hamas.
“I don't relativize anything, I don't compare anything,” Zizek replied. I said it at the beginning. Well, recently there was talk that it was important to listen to each other and understand what we were saying.” In the end, Zizek said he felt “a little embarrassed” because “many of the things I said could have been said by those who preceded me on the stand,” referring, for example, to the president of Slovenia, Natasa Pir Musar.
Zizek also criticized the postponement of an award to Palestinian author Adamia Shibli during the fair. “We are facing the paradoxes of cancel culture,” she said. He was referring to the LiBeraturpreis, which was to be awarded this Friday to Shibli.
The Litprom association, which promotes foreign authors in the German language and grants this award, announced that the author will not receive hers as originally planned. Shibli was to receive the award for A Minor Detail, which tells the true story of the rape and murder of a girl carried out by Israeli soldiers in 1949. The work was nominated for awards such as the Man Booker, the National Book Award and the International Booker Prize. In Spanish, it is published by the Hoja de Lata publishing house.
Several Arab publishing groups have announced that they will boycott the fair, and Malaysia has reported that it is withdrawing its presence due to “the organizers' pro-Israel attitude and open support for Israel.” More than 600 people from the sector have signed an open letter of protest. Among them are the Nobel Prize winners Olga Tokarczuk and Abdulrazak Gurnah or the Canadian writer Naomi Klein, who denounce that the organizers "close the space to a Palestinian voice."
These frictions weigh on the room, to the point that many voices have called for the resignation of its director, Juergen Boss. After Zizek's speech, Boos took the floor to say: “It is freedom of expression and it is good that it is so. It is also good that the speech was interrupted several times by the audience and I am glad that it was able to reach the end. Thank you, Slavoj, for showing us the abysses that exist in all of us.”
