German Foundation strips British artist of architecture prize over Israel boycott

A British artist has been stripped of a prestigious German architecture award worth €10,000 ($10,800) after signing an open letter calling for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, highlighting Germany’s growing hostility towards criticism of the apartheid state.

James Bridle was informed via email that the Schelling Architecture Foundation had unanimously decided to rescind their theory prize just days before Wednesday’s awards ceremony in Karlsruhe. The Foundation cited Bridle’s support for the cultural boycott as being “in direct contradiction” to responsibilities stemming from “awareness of Germany’s national history.”

Critics have been critical of Germany’s action in fulfilling what it believes is its historic responsibility towards the Jewish people, arguing that Berlin is caught in an unresolvable dilemma that is exposed by supporting every step of Israel’s genocide, ethnic cleansing, colonisation and invasion of Palestine.

READ: Germany to supply Israel with new arms shipments

“In a nutshell, the official twofold argument runs like this: first, Germany has perpetrated the Holocaust of the European Jews, which means there is a kind of collective original sin that all subsequent German generations inherit; second, learning its lesson means that Germany must wholeheartedly support Israel in every conceivable way, regardless of the cost,” Professor Jurgen Mackert, explaining Germany’s problematic ironclad support for Israel.

Mackert went on to argue that, by reducing the entirety of its brutal history to the singular crime of the Holocaust, Germany has failed to account for its settler-colonial violence against other people and, therefore, has not learnt any lesson at all.

READ: Germany to discuss draft laws to make recognition of Israel a condition for citizenship

The decision by the Foundation follows a recent cross-party resolution in the German parliament entitled “Never Again is Now,” which prohibits state funding for organisations that “question Israel’s right to exist” or support the non-violent boycott movements. International NGOs, including Amnesty International, have criticised the resolution for conflating anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel’s human rights record.

Speaking to the Guardian, Bridle called the decision “an accusation of anti-Semitism, which is abhorrent,” noting the irony that the jury had specifically praised his 2022 book “Ways of Being”, which discussed Israel’s “apartheid wall” in the illegally Occupied West Bank.

The controversy comes as thousands of cultural figures have joined calls to boycott Israeli institutions. The LitHub letter Bridle signed, which has gained 5,500 additional signatures from authors and book workers, describes Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” and argues that “Israeli cultural institutions, often working directly with the state, have been crucial in obfuscating, disguising and artwashing the dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians for decades.”

Notable authors supporting the boycott include Robert Macfarlane, Michael Rosen, Jesmyn Ward, and Greta Thunberg. The letter represents one of the largest commitments to cultural boycott ever made by the global literary community regarding Israel.