SHAH ALAM, Oct 18 — The Selangor Public Library Corporation (PPAS) has withdrawn its participation from the Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse) 2023 scheduled in Frankfurt, Germany, this month.
In a statement today, the state agency said the decision to pull out was made following the official statement issued by the organiser of its support for Israel in the ongoing Palestine-Israel war.
“Book fairs ought to act as a neutral platform and not promote any biased political agendas, but instead they must nurture unity and justice within the book industry ecosystem,” the statement read.
Yesterday, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek also announced the ministry’s decision to pull out of the book fair, stating that it would not compromise on Israel’s violence against the Palestinian people, which has violated international law and human rights.
She said the ministry’s move is aligned with the government’s stance, showing total support for and solidarity with Palestine.
Before that, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) had on Monday announced its withdrawal from participating in the Frankfurt Book Fair in line with the government’s positions on the Palestine-Israel conflict.
On Friday, the world’s largest forum for books and literature had called off an awards ceremony to honour a novel by a Palestinian-born novelist and essayist, Adania Shibli, following the Palestine-Israel war.
Shibli was scheduled to receive the 2023 LiBeraturpreis on October 20, an annual prize given to female writers from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Arab world.
The war between Israel and Hamas, the governing authority in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza, erupted on October 7 has injured or killed thousands of people.
