More than 1,000 figures from the literary and entertainment industry â including several Nobel laureates, Pulitzer prize, and Booker prize winners â have signed an open letter against âilliberal and dangerousâ cultural boycotts.
The letter was released by the nonprofit body Creative Community For Peace [CCFP], which campaigns against cultural boycotts of Israel, after more than 1,000 book industry figures pledged to boycott Israeli cultural institutions that âare complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestiniansâ.
Among the signatories of the CCFP letter are Lee Child (creator of the Jack Reacher novels), Booker winner Howard Jacobson, Pulitzer winner David Mamet, Nobel winners Herta Müller and Elfriede Jelinek, historians Simon Schama and Simon Sebag Montefiore, and entertainers Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne and Debra Messing.
The letter states: âWe reject the calls to boycott Israeli and Jewish writers, publishers, authors, book festivals and literary agencies, along with those who support, work with, or platform them.
âWe continue to be shocked and disappointed to see members of the literary community harass and ostracise their colleagues because they donât share a one-sided narrative in response to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
âIsrael is fighting existential wars against Hamas and Hezbollah, both US, UK, and European Union-designated terrorist groups. The exclusion of anyone who doesnât unilaterally condemn Israel is an inversion of morality and an obfuscation of reality.â
The signatories said history was âfull of examples of self-righteous sects, movements and cults who have used short-lived moments of power to enforce their vision of purity, to persecute, exclude, boycott and intimidate those with whom they disagreed, who made lists of people with âbadâ views, who burned âsinfulâ books (and sometimes âsinfulâ people).â
They pointed to various incidents over the past year, including the cancellation of âplanned bookstore appearances by Jewish authorsâ and the publication of âlists of âZionistâ authors to harassâ as being âdirectly in opposition to the liberal values most writers hold sacred. Boycotts against authors and those who work with them is [sic] illiberal and dangerous.â
They said they believed writers, books and festivals âbring people together, transcend boundaries, broaden awareness, open dialogue, and can affect positive change ⦠Regardless of oneâs views on the current conflict, boycotts of creatives and creative institutions simply create more divisiveness and foment further hatred.â
Sally Rooney, Arundhati Roy, Rachel Kushner and Percival Everett were among the authors who this week said they would not work with any institution âcomplicit in violating Palestinian rightsâ, including operating âdiscriminatory policies and practicesâ or âwhitewashing and justifying Israelâs occupation, apartheid or genocideâ.
They said: âWe publish this letter as we face the most profound moral, political and cultural crisis of the 21st centuryâ, adding that Israel had killed âat the very least 43,362â Palestinians in Gaza since last October, and that this followed â75 years of displacement, ethnic cleansing and apartheidâ.
The signatories added that culture âhas played an integral role in normalising these injusticesâ and that Israeli cultural institutions, âoften working directly with the state, have been crucial in obfuscating, disguising and art-washing the dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians for decadesâ.