German Philosopher Rejects UAE Book Award

Date: 04 May 2021 - 21:33

News ID: ۸۹۸۶۱

DUBAI (Dispatches) – A prominent German philosopher has rejected an award from the UAE, citing the prize’s regime sponsorship.
Juergen Habermas, a well-known sociologist and commentator, announced that he had decided to reverse an earlier decision to accept the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, for which he had been declared Cultural Personality of the Year 2021.
"I declared my willingness to accept this year’s Sheikh Zayed Book Award. That was a wrong decision, which I correct hereby,” he told German news site Spiegel Online.
"I didn’t sufficiently make clear to myself the very close connection of the institution, which awards these prizes in Abu Dhabi, with the existing political system there.”
The "Cultural Personality of the Year” winner receives a prize of one million UAE dirhams ($272,249).
The award is named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late founder of the UAE and emir of Abu Dhabi.
The UAE has been frequently slammed over its poor human rights situation.
In January, an American think tank said that the United Arab Emirates has contributed to humanitarian crises and instability in the Middle East region.
The UAE is a key member of the Saudi-led aggression and siege against Yemen.
Riyadh and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush the popular Ansarullah movement.
The Saudi-led military aggression has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions of people. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases across the country.