Nearly 400 authors call for boycott of Israeli cultural institutions

LONDON: A group of almost 400 authors have called for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions.

The writers, including Sally Rooney and Arundhati Roy, say Israeli publishers, book festivals and literary agencies that have not spoken out against the war in Gaza are “complicit in genocide.”

The unpublished letter, organized by the Palestine Festival of Literature, claims that the “genocide … is the biggest war on children this century.”

It adds: “Culture has played an integral role in normalizing these injustices. Israeli cultural institutions, often working directly with the state, have been crucial in obfuscating, disguising and art-washing the dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians for decades.

“We cannot in good conscience engage with Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to apartheid and displacement.”

The Fossil Free Books pressure group, which worked to get literary festivals to cut ties with sponsors such as Baillie Gifford over the war earlier this year, is supporting the letter, alongside a number of Booker prize nominees. A full list of signatories is set to be released next week.

“We will not work with Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians,” the letter, seen by The Times, said.

“We will not cooperate with Israeli institutions including publishers, festivals, literary agencies and publications that are complicit in violating Palestinian rights.”

The move to boycott Israeli cultural institutions has also been criticized, including by “Jack Reacher” author Lee Child, who said writers should not “attack the very people whose hearts are still in the right place,” including Israel’s “only voices for peace and common sense.”

Child said: “They are firm allies in the struggle for an equitable outcome, and to demonise them is to shoot the Palestinian cause in the foot. Personally, I support a full two-state solution, and I’m a pragmatic person, so my instinct is to partner with Israelis who think the same way. Building bridges with them is the way to go. Canceling them is nuts.”

Larry Finlay, a former publishing chief at Transworld books, told The Times: “The target of (the signatories’) ire is just wrong because the people who will suffer from this will be Israelis who are on the left and anti-Netanyahu.

“There is no wisdom for this boycott, which is born out of hatred and antisemitism.”