Authors slam boycott of Israeli publishing

The literary world is divided over a petition organised by Palestine Festival of Literature demanding that Israeli publishers, agencies and publications be ignored.

English author Howard Jacobson says the petition is ‘staggering’. Picture: SBS

A schism in the literary world has grown wider after two award-winning authors criticised a petition signed by some of the leading writers calling for Israel’s book industry to be frozen out.

Booker prize-winning author Howard Jacobson said he was staggered that the petition’s signatories could dream they had a right to silence other writers, while Lionel Shriver criticised their intimidatory tactics.

The petition, which has been signed by hundreds of leading authors, including Sally Rooney, Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner, calls for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions they claim are “complicit in genocide”.

They have pledged to boycott Israeli publishers, book festivals, literary agencies and publications that have not spoken out against their country’s military actions in the Middle East.

Sally Rooney has signed the petition. Picture: The Australian

The petition has been organised by the Palestine Festival of Literature. Fossil Free Books, a pressure group that co-ordinated attempts to boycott British book festivals because of their sponsorship by asset management company Baillie Gifford, circulated the letter in Britain.

Jacobson said he had looked at the text of the boycott letter with “scarce belief that one writer, that one person from the artistic community, should dream that he or she has a right to silence another. It is staggering.”

Author and journalist Lionel Shriver at home in Brooklyn, New York. Picture: David Joshua-Ford

Shriver, another prolific author who won what is now known as the Women’s Prize for Fiction with We Need to Talk About Kevin, said the letter sought to “intimidate all authors into withdrawing their work for consideration at Israeli publishing houses and refusing to participate in Israeli festivals”.

Shriver also wrote on The Free Press website that she had signed an open letter circulated by Creative Community for Peace in opposition to members of the literary community who “harass and ostracise their colleagues because they don’t share a one-sided narrative” about Israel.

“Even if, in this instance, you happen to side with Sally Rooney and you decry Israel’s pursuit of the war against Hamas and Hezbollah, it is not in the larger interest of any writer for publishers, agents and festivals to be the preserve of a narrow ideological position on any issue,” Shriver wrote.

Shriver also echoed criticism from Lee Child, the creator of the Jack Reacher novels, who said his fellow writers should not attack their Israeli counterparts “whose hearts are still in the right place”.

Shriver wrote: “Ironically, like most Western literary subcultures these days, Israel’s is predominantly left wing, so the Rooney brigade is seeking to punish its natural political allies.”

The letter states that the signatories “will not work with Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians”.

Signatories include Everett and Kushner, two of the favourites for this year’s Booker prize; British-based Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah; former Booker winner Arundhati Roy; and hundreds of other authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Hisham Matar and Kamila Shamsie. It asks the signatories to circulate the letter to five other author contacts who might have an interest in signing.

Fossil Free Books became the focal point of a literary world backlash this year after it gathered signatories who, among other tactics, threatened to boycott Britain’s literary festivals unless they ended key sponsorship agreements with Baillie Gifford. The organisation demanded that Baillie Gifford should divest from its fossil-fuel investments, later including investments in companies that had commercial dealings in Israel.

The companies include Meta, the owner of Facebook, and Amazon, the largest bookseller in the world, which continues to stock publications by the boycotters.

The Times