What's happened
Masha Gessen's comparison of Gaza to a Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe sparks controversy
Why it matters
The withdrawal of the prize and the controversy surrounding Gessen's essay highlight the ongoing sensitivity and debate around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the use of historical comparisons in political discourse.
What the papers say
The New York Times emphasizes Gessen's survival story as a German Jew during the Nazi occupation, highlighting their resourcefulness in producing a satirical poetry magazine. The Independent and The Guardian focus on the withdrawal of the prize and the controversy surrounding Gessen's essay, with The Independent providing more details about the withdrawal and the rescheduling of the ceremony. The New Statesman provides background on Hannah Arendt's significance in Germany and the controversy surrounding Gessen's receipt of the prize.
How we got here
Masha Gessen's essay comparing Gaza to a Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe was published in The New Yorker on 9 December, leading to the withdrawal of support for the Hannah Arendt Prize ceremony scheduled for 15 December.
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Jews or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and a nation originating from the Israelites and Hebrews of historical Israel and Judah.
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe. Covering an area of 357,022 square kilometres, it lies between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south.
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Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Covering an area of 17,125,200 square kilometres, it is the largest country in the world by area, spanning more than one-eighth of the Earth's in
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Hannah Arendt was a German-born American political theorist. Many of her books and articles have had a lasting influence on political theory and philosophy. Arendt is widely considered one of the most important political thinkers of the 20th century.
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National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practices associated with the Nazi Party—officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party —in Nazi Germany, and of other far-right groups with similar ideas and aims.