Saudi Arabia and UAE join Time to Act climate conference in Tokyo

Saudi Arabia and UAE join Time to Act climate conference in Tokyo

Indonesia, Malaysia boycott Frankfurt Book Fair after Palestinian voices ‘shut down’ 

JAKARTA: Writers from Indonesia and Malaysia have stood in support of their countries’ decision to withdraw from the largest international book fair in Frankfurt following the organizer’s public support for Israel. 

Both countries were ready to participate in the fair that started on Wednesday when an awards ceremony to celebrate Palestinian writer Adania Shibli was called off last week. Shibli was going to be honored with the prestigious LiBeraturpreis for her novel “Minor Detail,” which tells the true story of the rape and murder of a Palestinian girl by Israeli soldiers in 1949. 

The cancelation of the award ceremony coincided with the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which started after the Gaza-based militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. 

Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, published a statement detailing plans “to make Jewish and Israeli voices especially visible” during the literary event and expressed “complete solidarity on the side of Israel.” 

For Indonesians, the stance was “like reading only one book to feel like you understand the whole world,” the Indonesian Publishers Association said in a statement on Monday, as it rejected “the Frankfurt Book Fair’s stance of supporting