Quarterly Updates for (1 Jul 2019 — 30 Sep 2019)

               The German city Aachen withdrew the Aachen Art Prize of $10,900 given to artist Walid Raad. The city’s mayor cited Raad’s support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as the reason for withdrawing the funds. Similarly, the German city of Dortmund withdrew the Nelly Sachs award worth $17,600, given to the author Kamila Shamsie, over her support for the BDS movement. Subsequently, more than 250 writers signed an open letter criticizing the city from stripping Shamsie of the award, “punishing an author for her human rights advocacy.”