100s of literarians boycott Israeli cultural institutions to protest ‘the most profound crisis of 21st century’

Hundreds of writers, publishers, literary festival workers, and other book workers have boycotted the Israeli cultural institutions that have been either complicit in or silent towards the Israeli regime’s devastating oppression of Palestinians.

Signing an open letter on Monday, the literarians said their move was aimed at protesting “the most profound moral, political, and cultural crisis of the 21st century.”

The letter, described by observers as one of the most forceful statements of condemnation and largest commitments to cultural boycott on the part of the American literary community, asserted that “the overwhelming injustice faced by the Palestinians cannot be denied.”

It cited the regime’s October 2023-present genocidal war on the Gaza Strip as an instance of the oppression, saying the brutal military campaign “has entered our homes and pierced our hearts.”

They pointed to the 43,000-plus death toll of the onslaught, which has mostly claimed the lives of women and children, denouncing it as “the biggest war on children this century.”

“Israel has made Gaza unlivable…Israel has destroyed all infrastructure, including the ability to count and bury the dead,” they added.

“Israeli officials speak plainly of their motivations to eliminate the population of Gaza, to make Palestinian statehood impossible, and to seize Palestinian land. This follows 75 years of displacement, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid.”

The signatories said they could no longer engage in “good conscience” with the Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to the regime’s apartheid against and displacement of Palestinians.

Continuing to work with the institutions would harm Palestinians, they said, calling on their fellow literarians to join the pledge.

The undersigned include multiple winners of, and finalists for, almost every major literary award in the world, from the Booker to the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

They feature such great names as Percival Everett, Sally Rooney, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Kaveh Akbar, Michelle Alexander, Naomi Klein, Téa Obreht, Peter Carey, Jericho Brown, Natalie Diaz, Mary Gaitskill, Hari Kunzru, and Rachel Kushner.

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Jhumpa Lahiri, Justin Torres, Raven Leilani, Susan Abulhawa, Valeria Luiselli, Jia Tolentino, Ben Lerner, Jonathan Lethem, Hisham Matar, Maaza Mengiste, China Miéville, Torrey Peters, Max Porter, Miriam Toews, Leslie Jamison, Layli Long Soldier, and Ocean Vuong are also among the signatories.

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