The Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurt Buchmesse) is the world’s largest, and most important, trade fair for books, which will be taking place on October 18 (Wednesday) to October 22 (Sunday).
Though, it appears that this year, they will not be receiving the amount of participation they normally get due to their open support for Israel.
Taking to their Instagram page, Frankfurt Buchmesse shared that they stand with Israel in regards to the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict.
They wrote, “We want to make Jewish and Israeli voices especially visible at the book fair. The terror against Israel contradicts all the values that Frankfurt Buchmesse stands for. Frankfurt Buchmesse stands with complete solidarity on the side of Israel.”
Following this, the Malaysian Minister of Education (MoE), Fadhlina Sidek, took to her Twitter page to announce that MoE will no longer be participating in the book fair.
“The Malaysian Ministry of Education (MoE) has decided to withdraw from participating in the Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurt Buchmesse) 2023 scheduled to take place in Frankfurt, Germany. MoE’s decision to withdraw was taken after considering the pro-Israel attitude and the open support from the organisers for Israel.”
“MoE will never compromise against Israeli violence in Palestine. It is clearly against international law and human rights. The decision taken by MoE is in line with the government’s stance to always stand in solidarity and give full support to Palestine,” she shared in a statement.
What do you think about this? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
