By Cuneyt Karadag
BERLIN (AA) – Facing controversy over defending Palestine, Russian American writer/journalist Masha Gessen on Saturday received the Hannah-Arendt Prize award at a small ceremony with heavy security.
About 50 people attended the ceremony in a small hall in the northwestern city of Bremen, with tight police security measures.
Eva Senghaas, one of the managers of the Hannah-Arendt initiative, told German news agency DPA: “It was a very intense event in a small format and we are all happy that it happened."
- Controversy
Gessen attracted controversy due to comparing Gaza in a New Yorker magazine article to "the Jewish ghettos in Europe that were once occupied.”
Criticizing Gessen’s views, the Heinrich Boll Foundation – which gives the award – decided not to attend the award ceremony.