Wiesenthal Centre Aghast at 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature Granted to Jewish State Hatemonger

October 8, 2022

In a letter to the Swedish Academy’s Chairman of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Prof. Anders Olsson, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed "shock at the 2022 selection..."

 

“Indeed, in the past, well-known writers such as Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Roald Dahl, etc... have openly expressed their antisemitism.”

 

The letter continued, “the Swedish Academy’s choice this year is chilling. Annie Ernaux is an extreme-left activist who regularly denounces Israel as ‘an Apartheid state.' She supports the so-called BDS movement – the Boycot, Divestment and Sanctions campaign targeting Israeli and Jewish products, companies, sport, art and culture... that is so reminiscent of the 1930s Nazi ‘Kauft Nicht Bei Juden’ (buy not from the Jews!).”

 

The BDS campaign and related activity is listed as a contemporary example of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Aliiance (IHRA). In fact, Sweden has adopted the Definition of Antisemitism and, as one of its initiators in 1998, the Government of Sweden presently covers the role of Chair of the IHRA, building on its work two decades earlier.

 

Samuels stressed that, “BDS is a danger to Jews everywhere... An example is Madam Ernaux’ support for the attack by Houria Bouteldja on a Miss France candidate, April Benayoum, whose father is Italo-Israeli. At the time, Bouteldja had commented, ‘one cannot be an innocent Israeli’... that sparked an avalanche of death threats on social media against the young candidate…”

  

This letter has been shared with IHRA Chair, Swedish Ambassador Ann Bernes by Dr. Samuels.

For further information contact Dr. Shimon Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).