American writer Susan Sontag won this year's Jerusalem Prize for Literature.

	Peace activists had asked Sontag to decline award
	Jerusalem is a tough place for writers
	New York State Writers Institute - Susan Sontag
	Jerusalem International Book Fair

After receiving the award from Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, Sontag told the audience at the award ceremony of her opposition to collective punishment, which she felt "is never justified, militarily or ethically." Sontag said she referred to "the demolition of their homes, the destruction of their orchards and groves, the deprivation of their livelihood and access to employment, to schooling, to medical services, as a punishment for hostile, military activities in the vicinity of those civilians."

Sontag said she "believes that there can be no peace here until the planting of Israeli communities in the territories is halted, followed by the eventual dismantling of these settlements."

Sontag's remarks drew applause from the hundreds of people in the audience, but according to Ha'aretz, "others… left the hall in protest."

Earlier in the week, an Associated Press story announcing Sontag's award said the author would not use the Jerusalem venue to air her opinions. "I have opinions, but they're all second hand," she told the Associated Press.

Even so the author added, "You can imagine the basic view that I have here, which is there is an excessive use of retaliatory force, that there should be a Palestinian state, that the settlements in the territories should be disbanded."

Sontag said she had been troubled by letters she received from Israeli peace activists urging her not to come to Jerusalem. "There is a very large group of people here who don't agree with the government's policies," the author said. "They're not leaving. ... So why can't I come and talk to people here?"

Literature made of singular voices and the multiplicity of truth
Sontag, who is Jewish, was born in New York in 1933. She has written six works of nonfiction and four novels; her books have been translated into twenty-six languages. Sontag has written and directed four feature-length films and has also directed plays in the United States and Italy. For her most recent novel, "In America," Sontag was awarded the National Book Award for Fiction.

Sontag is also known as a human rights activist. She is considered by the New York State Writers Institute as "one of modern America's most influential, provocative and controversial critics."

Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres was one of three panelists who selected Sontag as the 18th recipient of the Jerusalem Prize for Literature. Previous winners have included V.S. Naipaul, Graham Greene, Simone de Beauvoir, Bertrand Russell and Octavio Paz.

Sontag accepted the Jerusalem Prize for Literature last night saying, "I accept it in homage to all the writers and readers in Israel and Palestine struggling to create literature made of singular voices and the multiplicity of truth.

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