The well-known Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek said at the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair that Israel is on the way to becoming a dictatorship, and that the Palestinians are seen as a problem, so several guests left the hall in protest.
Accusations were heard from the audience that the philosopher was relativizing the issue while he was talking about the latest developments in the Middle East, writes N1 Slovenia.
Žižek said that there is no solution for Gaza without books and that Israel, quoting Jewish historian and writer Yuval Noah Harari, is on the way to becoming a dictatorship.
He also noted that the Palestinians are seen as a problem.
"One should look at their situation, compare something that seems incomparable," he said.
Žižek was confronted first in front of the stage, and later directly on the stage, by the Commissioner for Anti-Semitism Uwe Becker, who left the hall several times. Becker accused Žižek of relativizing the crimes of Hamas, but the philosopher rejected his accusations.
"Only by reading books can we become aware of the situation," the philosopher is convinced.
As he added, among other things, terrorism against Israel is against all the values that the Frankfurt Book Fair stands for, but the postponement of awarding the award to the Palestinian author Adania Shibla is also against the values of the Fair.
It is reported that some guests and participants loudly protested and left the hall after Žižek's speech, which many described as inappropriate.
As the editor-in-chief and publicist of the Cankarjevo publishing house Aljoša Harlamov wrote on his X profile, the mayor of Frankfurt, Mike Josef, also left the hall in protest.
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