• Over 4,500 authors and publishing professionals have signed an open letter pledging not to collaborate with Israeli institutions complicit in genocide.
• Aligning with the BDS movement, the signatories assert their moral responsibility to refuse partnerships with entities that violate Palestinian rights.
Over 4,500 authors and publishing professionals have signed a letter pledging not to collaborate with Israeli publishers, festivals, publications, and agencies that are complicit in the brutal and barbaric Israeli genocide.
In the open letter, signatories assert that they “cannot in good conscience” work with Israeli institutions that have contributed to the genocide and displacement, comparing the campaign to the nearly three decade boycott of South African institutions credited with contributing to the dismantling of the apartheid state.
The authors have aligned themselves with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
This initiative seeks to achieve freedom for Palestinians by severing ties with entities complicit in Israel’s violations against them. By heeding the Palestinian-led call for a cultural boycott, the authors aim to promote freedom for Palestinians amid increasing restrictions on their lives.
The authors have stated that they refuse to work with literary institutions that are “complicit in violating Palestinian rights” or who “have never publicly recognised the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”
The signatories include:
Michelle Alexander (writer, attorney and opinion columnist for the New York Times)
Viet Thanh Nguyen (Vietnamese-American professor and novelist)
Sally Rooney (Irish author and screenwriter)
Junot Díaz (Dominican-American writer)
Judith Butler (third-wave feminist)
Isabella Hammad (British-Palestinian author)
Rupi Kaur (Canadian-Indian poet and illustrator)
Ocean Vuong (Vietnamese-American poet)
“We, as writers, publishers, literary festival workers, and other book workers, publish this letter as we face the most profound moral, political and cultural crisis of the 21st century. The overwhelming injustice faced by the Palestinians cannot be denied. The current war has entered our homes and pierced our hearts,” the letter reads. “The emergency is here: Israel has made Gaza unlivable.”
“We call on our publishers, editors, and agents to join us in taking a stand, recognising our own involvement and moral responsibility, and to stop engaging with the Israeli state and with complicit in Israeli institutions.”
