Hundreds of celebrated authors have pledged to boycott Israeli cultural institutions, condemning them for their role in “overwhelming oppression of Palestinians”. Signatories include literary luminaries such as Percival Everett, Sally Rooney, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Naomi Klein, and Ocean Vuong, alongside dozens of other notable voices in global literature, reports Middle East Monitor.
Described as the most forceful statement of condemnation from the literary world toward Israel’s cultural sector by Literary Hub, the open letter calls the war in Gaza “genocide”. The authors further accuse Israeli officials of actions aimed at making Palestinian statehood “impossible” following “75 years of displacement, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.”
Moreover, they criticise Israel’s cultural institutions for enabling, “artwashing”, and the “dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians for decades.”
“Culture has played an integral role in normalising these injustices,” the letter reads. The authors draw parallels to previous boycotts of South African institutions during apartheid, invoking the moral responsibility that writers and artists have in opposing systemic oppression.
Signed by winners of the Booker, Pulitzer and National Book Awards, the letter also calls on other members of the literary community, including writers, editors and publishers to join in their commitment to avoid working with Israeli institutions they state are complicit in or silent on the human rights abuses facing Palestinians.
It closes with a call for action: “To work with these institutions is to harm Palestinians, and so we call on our fellow writers, translators, illustrators and book workers to join us in this pledge. We call on our publishers, editors and agents to join us in taking a stand, in recognising our own involvement, our own moral responsibility and to stop engaging with the Israeli state and with complicit Israeli institutions.”
