The Ambassadors of Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan and Tunisia notified the Swedish Academy today they were declining invitations to attend the presentation on December 10 of Nobel prizes and the banquet held as part of the presentation ceremonies because the presentations have "political tendencies." The envoys of Egypt and Algeria declined their invitations previously.
The rejections were stimulated by the fact that the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded this year to two Jewish writers, S. Y. Agnon of Israel and Nelly Sachs of Sweden, specifically for the Jewish content of their works. Officials here said that the rejections marked the first time that foreign envoys have declined invitations to a ceremony considered the social and cultural event of the year in Europe. The rejection by the Tunisian envoy caused surprise because Tunisia has not in recent years followed the Arab League stands on attitudes toward Israel.
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