… of a big corruption investigation, the Sapir Prize is a drop in the bucket.

But the tale of this Israeli literary award tells us something about conflict of interest in general, and the disgust it inspires. And the damage it does.

UD‘s already covered this totally corrupt prize, reserved for writers who have friends, relatives, and business partners among the judges. Amid the press’s revelation of clear COI involving the winner and one of the finalists, organizers — operators? — of the Sapir decided to suspend it altogether this year.

Actually, they tried to do the whole thing over again, but most writers – among the finalists, and among the general population of Israeli writers – don’t seem to think it’s worth their time to compete for a rigged prize.

Plus, the original winner and four finalists were promised prize money.

…When the fund canceled the original award on July 2, it promised to appoint a new panel of judges to choose a new winner. However, the five finalists then refused to resubmit their candidacies in protest, and “there were quite a few other authors who also said they would not compete,” the terse, five-line announcement said.

… [T]he five finalists had planned to take joint legal action to secure compensation. But attorney Mibi Mozer, who originally represented all five of them, said disagreements among them made joint action impossible. Instead, “each of the authors will take whatever action he deems necessary.” …

… “There was no literary consideration of any value in favor of a second round,” [said one finalist]. “This was a proper decision … after a string of bad, stupid decisions. But that doesn’t absolve them from resolving the issue of the prize. Mifal Hapayis shouldn’t wait for our lawyers…”

So, you know, that’s a mess. A “fiasco,” Ha’aretz calls it.