Over 1,000 International Writers Boycott Israeli Publihers

Jakarta, MINA – More than 1,000 writers, including Nobel Prize, Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award winners, have called for a mass boycott of Israeli publishers due to allegations of their leaders committing genocide against Palestinians.

The declaration represents the largest cultural boycott of Israeli cultural institutions in history. According to a press release from the Palestine Festival of Literature, the list of writers includes Sally Rooney, Annie Ernaux, Arundhati Roy, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Max Porter, Ocean Vuong, Percival Everett, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Rupi Kaur, Michelle Alexander, Judith Butler, Rachel Kushner, Jhumpa Lahiri, Valeria Luiselli, and many more.

The signatories have pledged not to collaborate with Israeli publishers, literary festivals, literary agencies, and publishing houses that “violate Palestinian rights,” including those practicing “discriminatory policies and practices” or “covering up and justifying Israeli occupation, apartheid, or genocide,” as reported by The Guardian on Friday.

“We, as writers, publishers, literary festival workers, and other book industry professionals, publish this letter facing the most profound moral, political, and cultural crisis of the 21st century,” the declaration begins.

This call to action is organized by the Palestine Festival of Literature (also known as PalFest), which holds an annual festival with free public events in cities across Palestine on October 28, 2024. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)