Canadian authors, including Miriam Toews, Rupi Kaur and Dionne Brand, are among more than 1,000 writers and publishing professionals who signed an open letter pledging to boycott Israeli cultural institutions amid continued conflict in the Middle East.
Published on Monday,聽 said the authors “will not work with Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians.”
“Culture has played an integral role in normalizing these injustices,” the letter reads. “Israeli cultural institutions, often working directly with the state, have been crucial in obfuscating, disguising and artwashing the dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians for decades.”聽
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The boycott includes Israeli publishers,聽festivals, literary agencies and publications that the letter states, “have been accused of being complicit in violating Palestinian rights” or “whitewashing and justifying聽Israel’s occupation, apartheid or genocide.”聽
The letter was organized by six groups: the Palestine Festival of Literature, Books Against Genocide, Book Workers for a Free Palestine, Fossil Free Books, Publishers for Palestine and Writers Against the War on Gaza.聽
The letter has sparked controversy.
In an聽聽with the Times of London, British author Lee Child, author of the “Jack Reacher” books, said that Israel’s creatives and intellectuals are “firm allies in the struggle for an equitable outcome, and to demonize them is to shoot the Palestinian cause in the foot. Personally, I support a full two-state solution, and I鈥檓 a pragmatic person, so my instinct is to partner with Israelis who think the same way. Building bridges with them is the way to go. Cancelling them is nuts.鈥
Canadian authors, including David Bergen, Sarah Bernstein and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, are among those who signed the letter. Prominent international signees include Sally Rooney, Arundhati Roy and Rachel Kushner.
Asma Sahebzada is a Toronto-based general assignment reporter
for the Star. Reach her via email: asahebzada@thestar.ca
