Balfour Hakak, former chairman of the Hebrew Writers Association, told Arutz Sheva that Mifal Hapayis (Israels official state lottery) decision to award the Landau Prize for Arts and Sciences in the poetry category to radical leftist poet Yitzhak Laor is surprising. Laor, a controversial figure and writer, has expressed vitriolically anti-Zionist stances both in his poetry and prose work.