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German Jewish author attacks prize for Israel critic

Jul 20, 2009, 14:32 GMT

Cologne - German Jewish author Ralph Giordano has sharply criticized the decision of the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg to award the Federal Order of Merit to Felicia Langer, a longtime Palestinian-rights advocate and critic of Israel. Giordano, 86, who survived the Holocaust and has written about neo-Nazism as well as Islam in Germany, said in Cologne on Monday that Langer should not have been awarded the prize. 'No one in the last 25 years, with a one-sidedness bordering on blindness, has done Israel more damage than this supposed human- rights lawyer,' he said. Langer, who now lives in Tuebingen in Baden Wuerttemberg, defended Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and published works detailing alleged Israeli infractions of international law, including torture. Langer had been 'the shrillest anti-Israel' voice in Germany, according to Giordano, and her life's achievement had been the 'notorious deception' regarding the Middle East conflict, he said. Giordano, himself a recipient of the Federal Cross of Merit, is also known for having been a fierce critic of the building of a new mosque in Cologne in 2007.

Europe News

German Jewish author attacks prize for Israel critic

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