Envoy to Germany: Awardee Ignores Terror on Israel

Israel’s Ambassador to Germany Yakov Hadas-Handelsman criticized on Monday the decision of the city of Frankfurt to award the Adorno prize to US professor Judith Butler.

Hadas-Handelsman pointed to the fact that Butler previously described Hezbollah and Hamas as “progressive organizations,”  which he said showed ignorance towards their “participation in terror against civilians and the attitude of these organizations to religious pluralism and equal rights between men and women and between people of different sexual orientations.”

He stressed that by awarding the US professor, “who has caused damage to the one and only Jewish state,” Butler’s statements will be legitimized and that “this will play into the hands of [Israel's] opponents.”

The ongoing row over awarding Butler, a supporter of a cultural and academic boycott of Israel, with the Adorno Prize in September, has seen Jewish groups call on Frankfurt to rescind the prize.

B'nai Brith International issued a statement on Monday that “Butler's anti-Israel actions include endorsing the United States Campaign for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), a boycott that was actively promoted by the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.”

B'nai B'rith continued, “it is wrong to give the Adorno Prize, named in honor of a Jewish intellectual, to anyone who shares these goals. It is our hope that the city of Frankfurt, a sister-city of Tel Aviv, will reconsider presenting Butler with the Adorno Prize given her lamentable anti-Israel track record.”