Mass Pledge to Boycott Israeli Cultural Institutions
More than 1,000 authors have launched a boycott of Israeli publishers complicit in the dispossession of the Palestinian people. These writers and authors have pledged to boycott Israeli cultural institutions. The letter (published below) represents the largest commitment to cultural boycott ever made by the global literary community against the Israeli cultural sector:
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 emergency is here: Israel has made Gaza unlivable. It is not possible to know exactly how many Palestinians Israel has killed since October, because Israel has destroyed all infrastructure, including the ability to count and bury the dead. We do know that Israel has killed, at the very least, 43,362 Palestinians in Gaza since October and that this is the biggest war on children this century.
This is a genocide, as leading expert scholars and institutions have been saying for months. 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.
Culture has played an integral role in normalizing these injustices. 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.
We have a role to play. We cannot in good conscience engage with Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to apartheid and displacement. This was the position taken by countless authors against South Africa; it was their contribution to the struggle against apartheid there.
Therefore: we will not work with Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians. We will not cooperate with Israeli institutions including publishers, festivals, literary agencies and publications that:
A) Are complicit in violating Palestinian rights, including through discriminatory policies and practices or by whitewashing and justifying Israel’s occupation, apartheid or genocide, or
B) Have never publicly recognized the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law.
To work with these institutions is to harm Palestinians, and so we call on our fellow writers, translators, illustrators and book workers to join us in this pledge. We call on our publishers, editors and agents to join us in taking a stand, in recognising our own involvement, our own moral responsibility and to stop engaging with the Israeli state and with complicit Israeli institutions.
Initiating Signatories,
Fatin Abbas
Taiba Abbas
Nuzhat Abbas
Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Amy Abdelnoor
Sandy Abdelrahman
Idil Abdillahi
Mohamed Abdou
Hassan Abdulrazzak
Omar Abed
Jordan Abel
Aria Aber
Charlotte Abotsi
Alex Abraham
George Abraham
Susan Abulhawa
Maan Abutaleb
Samuel Ace
Tendayi Emily Achiume
Pip Adam
Brittany Adames
Juana Adcock
Amanda Addison
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Nancy Agabian
Pragya Agarwal
Tolu Agbelusi
Zena Agha
Silvia Aguilera
Aamina Ahmad
Rukhsana Ahmad
Naylah Ahmed
Shahnaz Ahsan
Cina Aissa
Jim Aitken
Amna A. Akbar
Kaveh Akbar
Sascha Akhtar
Vasiliki Albedo
Ammiel Alcalay
Kathleen Alcott
Aleksander Aleksander
Michelle Alexander
Kristen Vida Alfaro
Farah Ali
Kazim Ali
Hassan Ali
Najwa Ali
Sabrina Ali
Salma Ali
Sarah Ghazal Ali
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Kip Alizadeh
San Alland
Ashleigh Allen
Esther Allen
Rachael Allen
Lulu Allison
Ekbal Alothaimeen
Yazan Al-Saadi
Yassin Alsalman
Hanan Al-Shaykh
Lilliam Eugenia Gómez Álvarez
Miguel Álvarez Sánchez
Raquel Alvarez Sanchez
Hatem Aly
Alia Alzougbi
Justice Ameer
Suad Amiry
Sarah Amsler
Tahmima Anam
Anthony Anaxagorou
Darran Anderson
Sophie Anserson
Abi Andrews
Chris Andrews
Noah Angell
Callum Angus
Aileen Angsutorn
Sinan Antoon
Raymond Antrobus
Marni Appleton
Gina Apostol
Laura Arau
Nilson Araujo de Souza
Farhaana Arefin
John Manuel Arias
Julia Armfield
Amy Arnold
Mirene Arsanios
Ayan Artan
Claire Askew
Marigold Atkey
Polly Atkin
Jennifer Atkins
Jacqueline Atta-Hayford
James Attlee
Matthew Austin
Makram Ayache
MiMi Aye
Sarah Aziza
Hajjar Baban
Indie Laras Bacas
Tareq Baconi
Danielle Badra
Valérie Bah
Bilal Baig
Priya Bains
Jennifer Baker
Jo Baker
Nikkitha Bakshani
Sita Balani
Emily Balistrieri
Ibtisam Barakat
Frank Barakat
J. Mae Barizo
Lana Barkaei
Tim Barker
Frankie Barnet
Cassandra Barnett
Damian Barr
Emily Barr
Ania Bas
Lana Bastasic
Liam Bates
Rim Battal
Alyssa Battistoni
Jumana Bayeh
Richard Beck
Sarona Bedwan
Hannah Beer
Henry Bell
Kobby Ben Ben
Ronan Bennett
Ariana Benson
Sophie Benson
Laura van den Berg
Franco Berardi Bifo
Bennet Bergman
David Bergen
Chase Berggrun
Jay Bernard
Susan Bernofsky
Sarah Bernstein
Omar Berrada
Marie-Helene Bertino
Rahul Bery
Deepa Bhasthi
Gargi Bhattacharyya
Fatima Bhutto
Rose Biggin
Joanna Biggs
Irene Bindi
Maya Binyam
Beverley Birch
Brandi Bird
Hera Lindsay Bird
Farid Bitar
Adelheid Bjornlie
Sin Blaché
Grace Blakeley
A K Blakemore
Nicholas Blincoe
Selina Boan
Lindsey Boldt
Yolanda Bonnell
Naomi Booth
Patricia Borlenghi
Houria Bouteldja
Felix Chau Bradley
Gracie Mae Bradley
Katie Bradshaw
Solomon Brager
Nathaniel Braia
Beth Brambling
Dionne Brand
James Bridle
Elizabeth Briggs
Octavia Bright
Victoria Brittain
Rula Jones Brock
Marianna Brooker
Jennifer Brough
Jericho Brown
Kerry Donovan Brown
Simone Browne
Natascha Bruce
Anca Bucur
Victoria Adukwei Bulley
Judith Butler
Alex Caan
Troy Cabida
Amina Cain
Danny Caine
Felicity Callard
Jen Calleja
Anje Monte Calvo
Marta Fernández Campa
Rosa Campbell
Olga Campofreda
Paul Cannon
Anthony V. Capildeo
Anna Carastathis
Peter Carey
Daragh Carville
Brad Casey
Maya Caspari
Joyoti Grech Cato
Fesal Chain
Jody Chan
Vajra Chandrasekera
Jade Chang
Hayan Charara
Jos Charles
Ruth Charnock
Amit Chaudhury
Cathy Linh Che
Alexander Chee
Melissa Chemam
Anelise Chen
Ching-In Chen
Lisa Hsiao Chen
Tim Tim Cheng
Heerahn Cheon
Selim-a Atallah Chettaoui
Eugene Yiu Nam Cheung
Anne Chisholm
Satinder Kaur Chohan
Mona Chollet
Cat Chong
Chrysanthemum
Bora Chung
Gina Chung
Tice Cin
Jo Blair Cipriano
Susannah Clapp
Eliza Clark
Caro Clarke
John Clifford
Dave Coates
Lucy Coats
Lindsey Collen
Bea Colley
Peter Collins
David Colmer
Joey Connolly
Rachel Connolly
Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Swithun Cooper
Hannah Copley
Jonah Corne
Jacqui Cornetta
Rio Cortez
Mary Costello
Glen Coulthard
Leah Cowan
Molly Crabapple
Raymond Craib
Mac Crane
Andy Croft
Paul Ian Cross
Tess Cullity
Harriet Cummings
Doreen Cunningham
Faye Cura
Grace Curtis
Lauren Aimee Curtis
Sarah Cypher
Selma Dabbagh
Sky Dair
Gabriel Dalpiaz
William Dalrymple
Alain Damasio
Jared Davidson
Danielle Davis
Jenny Fran Davis
Roisin Davis
Gloria Dawson
Aviah Sarah Day
Eccy de Jonge
Saraid de Silva
Ren Dean
Tricia Dearborn
Siddhartha Deb
Claire Dederer
Sharanya Deepak
Michael DeForge
Trynne Delaney
Lauren Delphe
Jemma Desai
Sharan Dhaliwal
Junot Díaz
Natalie Diaz
Susannah Dickey
Ellen Dillon
Brian Dillon
Nicola Dinan
Merima Dizdarević
Farzana Doctor
Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Ted Dodson
Anna Doherty
Michael Donkor
Sarah Dowling
Nicky Downes
Erin Doyle
Ian Dreiblatt
Sarah Driver
Sophie Drukman-Feldstein
OmiSoore H. Dryden
Sharon Duggal
Lisa Duggan
Cyrus Dunham
Natalie Dunn
Roisin Dunnett
Ben Durham
Carolina Ebeid
Caroline Eden
Martin Edmond
Chikè Frankie Edozien
Ben Ehrenreich
Deborah Eisenberg
Nidhi Zakaria Eipe
Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
Nadine El-Enany
Tala El-Fahmawi
Yara El-Ghadban
Walid El Hamamsy
Mirna El Helbawi
Mohammed El-Kurd
Mirna El Mahdy
Yasmin El-Rifae
Inua Ellams
Zetta Elliott
Maia Elsner
Lucie Elven
Soula Emmanuel
Jonathan Emmett
Shareefa Energy
Mercedes Eng
Annie Ernaux
Ninar Esber
Martín Espada
Nick Estes
Sarala Estruch
Diana Evans
Gareth Evans
Percival Everett
Eve L. Ewing
Keeyana Ezna (Kezna Dalz)
Allegra Le Fanu
David Farr
Shon Faye
Sonia Fayman
Melissa Febos
Silvia Federici
Elaine Feeney
Anita Felicelli
Camonghne Felix
Jordan Felkey
Megan Fernandes
Ferrao
Julie Finidori
Susan Finlay
Samuel Fisher
Emily Fitzell
Fernando A. Flores
Genessee Floressantos
Angela Flournoy
Omar Foda
Ashley Fortier
Sesshu Foster
Yara Rodrigues Fowler
Dan Fox
Lorna Scott Fox
Livia Franchini
Micha Frazer-Carroll
Indigo Freeman
Ru Freeman
Talia Freimanis
Sasha Frere-Jones
Connor Frew
Temim Fruchter
Diane Fujino
Oliver Fugler
Elizabeth Fullerton
Aja Gabel
Ellen Gabriel
Kay Gabriel
Mary Gaitskill
Harry Gallon
Shannon Galpin
Jay Gao
Angela Garbes
Marc Garcés
Suzanne Gardinier
Ed Garland
Camryn Garret
Florence Gauthier
Karl Geary
Joma Geneciran
Puloma Ghosh
Nadene Ghouri
Annie Gibson
Harry Josephine Giles
Cassia Gaden Gilmartin
Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Fausto Giudice
Nicholas Glastonbury
Carly Gledhill
Rory Gleeson
Sinéad Gleeson
Brannavan Gnanalingam
Katie Goh
Em Goldman
Martin Gollan
Noam Gonick
Gia Gonzales
Elisa Gonzalez
Avery Gordon
Sylvia Gorelick
Molly Gott
Rebecca Ruth Gould
Niven Govinden
Marlowe Granados
Greg Grandin
Charlotte Geater
Aoife Greenham
Madeleine Grive
Faïza Guène
Amba Guerguerian
Gioia Guerzoni
Guy Gunaratne
Anna Gunin
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Susila Gurusami
Kevin Guyan
Marilyn Hacker
Saleem Haddad
Swapna Haddow
Subhi Hadidi
Jessica Hagedorn
Simon Haines
Mashinka Firunts Hakopian
Robert Hamberger
Mohsin Hamid
Omar Robert Hamilton
Isabella Hammad
Mohammed Hanif
Kaoutar Harchi
Githa Hariharan
Matef Harmachis
Malcolm Harris
Will Harris
Alison B. Hart
Markus Harwood-Jones
Sabrin Hasbun
Mir Shamsedin Fallah Hashemi
Sarvat Hasin
Tobi Haslett
Janet Hatherley
Owen Hatherley
Alice Hattrick
Naomi Head
Sophia Hembeck
Nadia Henderson
Catherine Hernandez
Etzali Hernández
féi hernandez
Liz Heron
Trevor Herriot
Kit Heyam
layla-roxanne hill
Matt Rowland Hill
Afua Hirsch
Emma Hislop
Bára Hladík
Jean Chen Ho
Hermione Hoby
Jennifer Hodgson
Annie Hodson
Rachel Holmes
Cathy Park Hong
Claire Hong
Amelia Horgan
Tansy E. Hoskins
Andrew Hsiao
Jane Hu
Sally Huband
Mike Huett
Caoilinn Hughes
Femi Hughes
Kelly X. Hui
William Rayfet Hunter
Anton Hur
Amber Husain
Emteaz Hussain
Lizzie Huxley-Jones
Jungeun Hwang
Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
Mayada Ibrahim
Sabrina Imbler
Saba Imtiaz
Paul Ingram
Mie Inouye
Anne Irwin
Burhana Islam
Hanan Issa
Deepa Iyer
Mira Jacob
Harriet Jae
Sarah Jaffe
Nasim Marie Jafry
Wren James
Leslie Jamison
Randa Jarrar
Tom Jeffreys
Nozizwe Jele
Mike Jempson
Mike Jenkins
Claire Jimenez
Ha Jin
Jessica Gaitán Johannesson
Jessica Johns
Daisy Johnson
Evan Johnson
Galen Johnson
Jenny Johnson
Rebecca May Johnson
Caitlin Johnstone
El Jones
Ellen E Jones
Owen Jones
Kira Josefsson
Fady Joudah
Laura Ellen Joyce
Helen Jukes
Park min jung
Loll Jung
Jennifer Kabat
Dina Ahmed Kabil
Elaine Kahn
Shubnum Khan
Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
Megan Kamalei Kakimoto
Donia Kamal
Anjali Kamat
Meena Kandasamy
Malav Lanuga
Balsam Karam
Ghada Karmi
Raghu Karnad
Yumna Kassab
Karim Kattan
Arthur Kaufman
Sophie Monks Kaufman
Navjot Kaur
Rupi Kaur
Sharada Keats
noam keim
Robin D.G. Kelley
Kaie Kellough
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
Niyati Keni
Peter Kennard
Louise Kenward
Emily Kenway
Jennie Kermode
Amy Key
Porochista Khakpour
Muhammed Ali Khalidi
Hannah Khalil
Amyra El Khalili
Shamus Khan
Taran Kahn
Tawseef Khan
Michelle Khazaryan
Lydia Kiesling
Crystal Hana Kim
SJ Kim
Shilo Kino
Ana Kinsella
Gary Kinsman
Blue Kirkhope
Alyson Kissner
Vanessa Kisuule
Naomi Klein
Cecilia Knapp
Rosalie Knecht
Lisa Ko
Claire Kohda
Jamil Jan Kochai
Talia Lakshmi Kolluri
Gowri Koneswaran
Amelia Kraigher
Kate Kremer
Michelle de Kretser
Nancy Kricorian
Charlot Kristensen
Mark Krotov
Zaffar Kunial
Hari Kunzru
Rachel Kushner
Grace Kwan
Abdellatif Laabi
Souad Labbize
Armelle Laborie-Sivan
Catherine Lacey
Daisy Lafarge
Marion Olharan Lagan
Sabinha Lagoun
Jhumpa Lahiri
Léopold Lambert
Asma Lamrabet
Charles Lang
Michael Langan
Patrick Langley
Sarah Lasoye
Davide Gallo Lassere
Andrea Lawlor
Tim Lawrence
Kiese Laymon
Jessica J. Lee
Matthew Lee
Soje Lee
Sara Lefsyk
Eugenia Leigh
Raven Leilani
Mica Lemiski
Ben Lerner
Céline Leroy
Jonathan Lethem
Anna Leventhal
Sophie Lewis
Daryl Li
Erika Olofsson Liljedahl
Sasha Lilley
Thea Lim
Ursula Lindsey
David Ross Linklater
Jazmine Linklater
Robert Liu-Trujillo
Mikaela Loach
Kirsty Logan
Amber Lone
Layli Long Soldier
Cherise Lopes-Baker
Alan Pelaez Lopez
Kyle Carrero Lopez
Nora Loreto
Roberto Lovato
Lia lovenitti
Rebecca Lowe
Melissa Lozada-Oliva
Emily Lee Luan
Canisia Lubrin
Melissa Lucashenko
Valeria Luiselli
Ed Luker
Len Lukowski
Tariq Luthun
lisa minerva luxx
Alexis Lykiard
Eadaoin Lynch
Rosa Lyster
Maatin
Helen Macdonald
Robert Macfarlane
Carmen Maria Machado
Kama La Mackerel
Weston MacLeod
Guy Maddin
Simon Maddrell
Michael Magee
Sabrina Mahfouz
Michael Malay
Ayisha Malik
Rachel Malik
Emanuela Maltese
Bo Mandeville
Preethi Manuel
Olivier Marboeuf
Spyros Marchetos
Miriam Margolyes
Lauren Markham
Francisco Márquez
Andrew Martin
Manjula Martin
Ariél M. Martinez
Vanessa Martina-Silva
Ahmed Masoud
Patricia Massay
Noreen Masud
Hisham Matar
Sarah Thankam Mathews
Ioanna Mavrou
So Mayer
Robyn Maynard
Kelli McAdams
Tim McCaskell
Sophie McCreesh
Breanna J. McDaniel
Jen McDerra
Martine McDonagh
MK McGrath
Fiona Kelly McGregor
Jon McGregor
Lisa McInerney
Kimberly McIntosh
Oisín McKenna
Rachel McKibbens
Matthew McNaught
Cassie McQuater
Don Mee Choi
Susana Medina
Shafik Meghji
Jamal Mehmood
Pauline Melville
Maaza Mengiste
Juliana Mensah
Lucy Mercer
Iman Mersal
Lina Meruane
Philip Metres
China Miéville
Jon Lindsay Miles
Iulia Militaru
James Miller
John Douglas Miller
Maggie Millner
Nina Millns
Bridget Minamore
Adrian Minckley
John Mingay
Frankie Miren
Fatima Farheen Mirza
Pankaj Mishra
Peter Mitchell
Hussein Mitha
Monique Mojica
Kagiso Lesego Molope
Nadine Monem
Adam Moody
Nathan Alexander Moore
Caroline Moorehead
Alan Morrison
Ghazal Mosadeq
Maria Motunrayo Adebisi
Hannah Moushabeck
Michel S. Moushabeck
Dwi Rahmad Muhtaman
Neel Mukherjee
Susan Muaddi Darraj
Alex Mullarky
Lorna Munro
Nora Lester Murad
Sahar Muradi
Rob Myatt
Sara Mychkine
Taiyo Na
Johanne Lykke Naderehvandi
Noor Naga
David Naimon
Ambika Nair
Ron Naiweld
Taghreed Aref Najjar
mélie boltz nasr
Susheila Nasta
Sham-e-Ali Nayeem
Jennifer Neal
Nawara Negm
Cecily Nicholson
Shanice Nicole
Nic Nicoludis
Kerem Nisancioglu
Rémy Ngamije
Joshua Nguyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Mark Nowak
Clara Nubile
Matteo Nucci
Jonathan Nunn
N S Nuseibeh
Alice Nuttall
Téa Obreht
Richard O’Brien
Anthony Christian Ocampo
Mark O’Connell
Meaghan O’Connell
Sinéad O’Hart
Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Nathalie Olah
Daniel José Older
Lola Olufemi
Hussein Omar
Ondjaki
Troy Onyango
Andrés N. Ordorica
Chibbi Orduna
Ian O’Reilly
Kenan Orhan
Amanda Orozco
Fiona O’Rourke
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Alice Oswald
Peter Oswald
Naomi Paik
Patty Paine
Allison Tamarkin Paller
Angela Palm
Gianfranco Pancino
Stan Papoulias
Ajay Parasram
George Parker
Jen Parker
Morgan Parker
Heather Parry
Shailja Patel
Vikki Patis
K Patrick
Lara Pawson
Martha Paynter
Jeda Pearl
Jonathan Pelham
Telka Pelova
Nicola Penfold
Lee Pepper
Rebecca Perry
Zoë Perry
Holly Pester
Gordon Peters
Torrey Peters
Andreas Petrossiants
Richard Phoenix
Laura Di Pietro
Alycia Pirmohamed
Hazel Jane Plante
Edward Plett
Casey Plett
Joanna Pocock
Justine Podur
Ethel Baraona Pohl
Clare Pollard
Gabriel Polley
Max Porter
Nina Mingya Powles
Pratyusha
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Cameron Price
Devon Price
Rosie Price
Joy Priest
Alexandra Pringle
Mira Ptacin
Jasbir Puar
E.R. Pulgar
Derecka Purnell
Marcia Lynx Qualey
Michael Quille
Linda Quiquivix
Zaynah Qutubuddin
Jamali Rad
Monika Radojevic
Nat Raha
Sue Rainsford
Monisha Rajesh
Shivanee Ramlochan
Ravinder Randhawa
Rahul Rao
Clarie Ratinon
Vidyan Ravinthiran
Kate Rawles
Cathy Reay
Jini Reddy
Francesca Reece
Martin Reed
Will Rees
Dave Rendle
Nausicaa Renner
Sarah Resnick
Emma Reynolds
John Reynolds
Jamie Richards
Geoffrey Rickly
Keith Ridgway
Charlotte Lydia Riley
Claude Rioux
Chrissie Roberts
Luke Roberts
Corey Robin
Tom Robinson
Sallyanne Rock
Monique Roffey
Fariha Róisín
Sally Rooney
Sophia K Rosa
Jacqueline Rose
Michael Rosen
Jordy Rosenberg
Gabriel Rosenstock
Tracy Rosenthal
Andrew Ross
Leone Ross
Margaret Ross
Noah Ross
Rhonda Roumani
Heather Rounds
Anita Roy
Arundhati Roy
Ryan Ruby
Chloe Ruthven
Hugh Ryan
Reda Sadiki
Eun Sae (검은새)
Kholod Saghir
Burcu Sahin
Ron Sakolsky
Trish Salah
Aida Salazar
Sara M Saleh
Edward Salem
Mohamed Salmawy
Seif Salmawy
John K Samson
Julia Sanches
Varli Pay Sandi
Nasia Sarwar-Skuse
Ayşegül Savaş
Julian Sayarer
Bobuq Sayed
Laura Scarmoncin
Robin Beth Schaer
James Schamus
Maya Schenwar
Sarah Schulman
Kit Schluter
Bhakti Shringarpure
Susan Schuppli
Claire Schwartz
Cam Scott
Grayson Scott
Walter Scott
Waithera Sebatindira
Kenza Sefrioui
Namwali Serpell
Richard Seymour
Sarah Shaffi
Hamid Darwish Shahkaly
Durre Shahwar
Elhum Shakerifar
Kamila Shamsie
Charif Shanahan
Solmaz Sharif
Azad Ashim Sharma
Kashif Sharma-Patel
Cason Sharpe
Christina Sharpe
Clare Shaw
Dan Sheehan
Farhana Sheikh
Shela Sheikh
Jack Shenker
Tyler Shipley
Parini Shroff
Nikesh Shukla
Terisa Siagatonu
Michèle Sibony
Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Safiya Sinclair
Sunny Singh
Hamed Sinno
Leona Skene
Johanna Skibsrud
Ryan Skrabalak
Tara Skurtu
Paulo Slachevsky
Alice Slater
Zeina Sleiman
Gillian Slovo
Mike Small
Nichola Smalley
Deborah Smith
Courtney Smyth
Rhona Snelling
Jess X. Snow
Oki Sogumi
Addy Rivera Sonda
Natasha Soobramanien
Ahdaf Soueif
Rae Spoon
Nicola Spurr
Gina Srmabekian
Cath Staincliffe
Alina Stefanescu
Rebecca Stoehill
Degna Stone
Anna Della Subin
Olivia Sudjic
Jaz Sufi
Smokii Sumac
Marsha Swan
Brandon Sward
Kate Sweeney
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Neferti Tadiar
Madiha Tahir
Rana Tahir
Tanaïs
Ginny Tapley Takemori
Preti Taneja
Rebecca Tamás
Ben Tarnoff
David J Tate
Sasha Tate-Howarth
Annie Taylor
Astra Taylor
Joelle Taylor
Nicholas Taylor
Brian Teare
Saeed Teebi
Janne Teller
Matthew Teller
Emily Temple
Jocelyn Tennant
Jacques Testard
Xuanlin Tham
Charles Theonia
Kai Cheng Thom
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
Ashley Thorpe
Andrzej Tichý
Lena Tichy
Jenevieve Ting
Shze-Hui Tjoa
Tara Tobler
Miriam Toews
Owen Toews
Naima Tokunow
Jia Tolentino
Samuel Tongue
Mohamed Tonsy
James Tookey
Justin Torres
Joshua Gutterman Tranen
Jessica Traynor
Shash Trevett
Addie Tsai
Birukti Tsige
Tori Tsui
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Aviva Tuffield
Tony Tulathimutte
Lestyn Tyne
Oana Uiorean
Jack Underwood
Emily Unwin
Hanna Thomas Uose
Simran Uppal
Ryan Vance
Angelique Tran Van Sang
Alejandro Varela
Joe Vaughan
MG Vassanji
Françoise Vergès
Katherena Vermette
Margaux Vialleron
Cecilia Vicuna
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
Ursula Villarreal-Moura
Hannah Vincent
James Vincent
Shola Von Reinhold
Clara Vulliamy
Ocean Vuong
Lindsay Wagner
Mirza Waheed
Isabel Waidner
Rinaldo Walcott
Emma Wallace
Nicole Wallace
Joanna Walsh
Zukiswa Wanner
Patricia Sarrafian Ward
Aea Varfis-van Warmelo
Noah Warren
Rosie Warren
Raffi Joe Wartanian
Bryan Washington
Nadia Wassef
Michael Waters
Max Weiss
Robert Welbourn
Joma West
Imogen West-Knights
Adam Weymouth
Jessica Widner
Rachel Wiley
Elvia Wilk
Frances Williams
Hattie Williams
Lara Williams
Luke Williams
Jenny Heijun Wills
Mia S. Willis
Kitty Wilson
Lorraine Wilson
jiaquing wilson-yang
James Wilt
Gabriel Winant
Jan Winter
Milo Wipperman
James Womack
Marian Womack
Adam Woods
Jan Woolf
Jacob Wren
Kyle Lucia Wu
Karen Wyld
Frank Wynne
Jessica Widner
Robin Yassin-Kassab
Kieran Yates
Jane Yeh
Jade Young
Eris Young
Nariman Youssef
M.O. Yukael
Juliano Zaffino
Abi Zakarian
Kate Zambreno
Javier Zamora
Haifa Zangana
Nazanin Zarepour
Hannah Zeavin
Ghassan Zeineddine
Alia Trabucco Zeran
Aisha Zia
Rasha Zidan
Issam Zineh
Alex Zucker
Jeffrey Zuckerman
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Bigots
Definition: ‘A person who is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic towards a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.’
I wonder how many killed by the IDF and how much total destruction of peoples’ homes, workplaces, hospitals would make you think what they were doing was not justified? Care to say? Or is there no limit?
I have no idea why the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has to somehow publicly recognise the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law before the people on the list would listen to them. (An orchestra that has to go begging due to a scarcity of government funding).
Maybe the conductor from the LSO should give a lengthy speech about 18th C. slavery before launching into Beethoven #5, the Scottish women’s football captain should do a speech on colonialism before playing France, and Christopher Brookmyer’s next book should have an intro about the Sudanese civil war.
Puerile.
The Guardian is quite ruthless in its combination of pre-publication, supplemented by post-publication, suppression of even the mildest reader sourced sentiment to the effect that systematically and ruthlessly slaughtering defenceless civilians cowering in hospitals, in schools or in shattered buildings might reasonably be characterised as not to be a nice way for a high-tech 21st century army to conduct itself.
I do hope that the lack of any such sentiments in the 4 previous posts here does not indicate any similar editorial policy on this blog.
I appreciate that tails are up at the moment but could someone please explain what “Israeli” culture is exactly? I ask because I have an inkling that a jewish culture might exist, but I’m having a bit of difficulty finding anything that is specifically Israeli about orchestras, authors, actors etc.? As for publishers mentioned here, I’d need to see evidence supporting the allegations against them – not least that it’s all of them as appears to be being suggested here.
Artists and the like may come from a country, yes, but it’s bit of a leap to suggest that they’re all some sort of amorphous entity without an individual personality, experience, or mind of their own. In this case they may or may not support the unspeakable horrors currently being inflicted on Gaza, but we just don’t know. There are certainly regular mass demonstrations against the Netanyahu government, and have been for a number of years.
It’s a bit like saying that because we all currently come from what is currently designated as the UK we “must” all have agreed wholeheartedly with the Gulf wars; which, just for the record, I personally did on the first regarding Kuwait but not on the second organised by GW Bush and his acolytes in New Labour. Would we really support a “burn the bagpipes” call to arms on that basis?
I would suggest that if you start targeting people on this contention alone then, human nature and hurt pride being what it is, they might well be be more likely to withdraw and become prey to the very influences that create exactly what those attempting to address here might not realise isn’t quite the case.
“I appreciate that tails are up at the moment”.
I mean, in the context of an ongoing genocide what exactly does this mean?
Hi Editor,
I think you might struggle more than you think to pin a pro-Israeli flag on me here. Even if you had known that I’d been to that country for myself and dipped my toe into the situation.
It’s fairly standard phrase and means exactly what it states: people are in an emotionally charged condition desirous of significant action. Not often the best time to make important, or indeed nuanced, decisions.
So again, please define this “Israeli culture” we should all be attacking with full force and form the legitimate grounds for why we need to attack individual people who may or may not conform to it, just because they come from the place?
Though I am obviously not ‘the Editor,’ I did at least try (by analogy only, I do admit, since like you, it seems, I have scant first hand knowledge of that country, and none whatsoever of Gaza in the period since 7/10/23 when the IDF sealed it off from those journalists whom they hadn’t yet executed) to define Israeli cultural institutions as alluded to in the early part of your final paragraph above?
Did you notice it?
Augustin was adjusting his rose-tinted spectacles.
The nature of a boycott means some who object strongly to what their government is doing will get caught up in it (remember also SA apartheid and the ensuing boycotts – were you against those?). If someone is genuine in their objections then they will understand perfectly well what a boycott means, why it is justified and what it is for and will not complain about their individual circumstances. If on the other hand they talk like you suggest that they are innocent and don’t deserve to suffer, then their apparent moral position against what the regime they live under is doing, is highly suspect at best.
What Israeli culture actually consists of is a different question but I see no more why it cannot have one than Scotland, England or any country. Ignorance of Israeli culture and cultural institutions as a starting point is hardly helpful in any argument about what its culture is and at the end of the day the creative people who live and work there are its culture. How distinct that makes it, is irrelevant.
What a government does is not necessarily the fault of the people but they cannot help be caught up in it; it is sad, inescapable fact of life.
So how come these artists,/writers didn’t boycott the cultural institutions of the USA/UK whilst our government’s were killing well over 500k Iraqi/Afghan civilians?
Oh. I know they wouldn’t have been able to make a living so their need to make money proved stronger than their moral sensibilities…..who’d have believed that ‘writers’ were such moral cowards,?
Boycotting Israel isnt going to affect their earning power and so the Jews are an easy target and wins the ‘writers’ plaudits in the sad morally debauched society they live in. ,The signatories should be ashamed of themselves, but the sad thing is they won’t be.
Because the situations were / are not the same. And who would be doing the boycotting of UK and USA (I am not suggesting people should boycott themselves.) and do we know it didn’t happen?
What artists in the UK and USA did during those wars if they felt motivated was to object to it like any other citizen, maybe bringing that into their art.
The thing is that ultimately there is nothing wrong in principle with a boycott of something you strongly object to. It may not be very effective but that doesn’t matter in terms of the principle.
Hi Niemand,
I do get why people feel that they want to do “something”, but I’m not sure that this is the way… or is even being fairly applied to be honest. I mean, why just Israel?
Given the truly horrific things on a genocidal basis that are happening to the Uyghurs why not an action against Chinese students in Scotland: a mass boycott of Chinese restaurants selling to them, shops selling them items, cinemas showing Chinese films, classes at Uni where they’re being taught etc.
If it’s sauce for the goose, why not the gander?
Whataboutery is a well-defined aspect of any such arguments but is secondary to the main issue of how justified a boycott is in a specific instance. Taken to its logical conclusion, making comparisons with every other serious injustice in the world which could not possibly all be addressed via boycott / protest, would mean that as you cannot do that, then you should do nothing about any of them. I sometimes wonder if that is not actually the motivation – stay out of it, everywhere.
In the real world people focus on a specific, particular bad / egregious cases, however flawed those choices might be, and saying to them why are you not protesting such and such as well as an argument to say they should stop protesting Israel’s actions is not a very valid argument.
Sorry Niemand, but you’re going to have to explain why what I said isn’t relevant.
We have two, if not actual then certainly proto-genocidal events taking place – one with ordnance and troops on the ground and the other with “camps”.. They are both foreign countries and both of the innocents involved in each situation are surely equally deserving of support (in my humble opinion).
Just to be clear I don’t condone what is proposed here for the one raised and wouldn’t for the other either – for exactly the same reason. The only essential difference between both situations, however, is financial. The one people are vexed about we do not rely on financially. The other, which is being ignored, we do. Not only has China a significant foothold in “our” economy but much of the Global North. In Scotland this is best evidenced by the number of “foreign” students at our institutions – institutions which have altered syllabuses, students which either come from or are associated with the ruling elite.
You’re going to have to explain why one is deserving of the action you appear to want but not the other. Why we have one we can literally take direct action against here at home but must ignore, whilst the other we are gesturing towards and nothing more should be the subject of action? Why should Gazan victims be more deserving the Uyghur? Who could we help more directly? Because, to me at least, if this is the path we must for ethical reasons, it seems like we’re hitting the easy target whilst continuing to pocket the financial benefits from the other’s misfortune?
I am not arguing which is more deserving. I am not saying that Gazan victims are more deserving than the Uyghur. I have never discussed the Uyghurs in fact.
What I am saying is that not addressing the situation of the Uyghurs has no bearing whether you address the situation in Gaza. One does not require the other. I give money to certain charities I decide on and there is no reason to stop doing that because I do not give money to all of those I think deserving. You look at what is going on in Gaza and make up your own mind about it based on the specifics of the situation, which has nothing to do with what is going on in China.
This is not difficult to understand, surely?
The question I would ask is do you think the only fair way to act is to address all such proto-genocidal situations, or if you are not willing / able to do that, none at all?
Hi again Niemand,
Thanks for getting back to me.
As I said I’m not supportive of this kind of action in any case whatever the reason as it’s essentially against individuals merely because of their passport. But for those intent on doing so it is the exercise of a choice – which then raises the question, why this particular cause?
My Uyghur point was by was of highlighting that a choice is being made here in one regard, and also that it may not be the most practical by a long shot if people want to engender real change and make the lives of others better.
Do I think you have to target everything at once? No, of course not. Do I think if you’re going to take action it should be in an area you can have a direct impact? Yes, you bet I do.. If not, what’s the point of the exercise? Political virtue signally may create a warm glow inside, but at the risk of alienating people who may support your position and expense of their livelihood for no practical effect… ?
I suppose I would say to those who’d support this is… what do you hope to achieve and what’s the chances of that happening? What is the safety-net to stop innocent people being dragged in? And why is this going to succeed in stopping Israeli excesses when the White House, the US State Department, and the UN have failed?
I don’t think people are making a conscious choice though. They are looking at the situation in Gaza and responding. It is true that what we know and indeed can see and hear about Gaza, is far more detailed than what we know about deadly goings-on in China so this has an impact. But also the fact that Israel has long been strongly supported by Western powers makes people feel more personally responsible and indeed any action has a much better chance of having some kind of effect, however small.
As for that effect, I agree boycotts can be (very) limited. But it is not virtue signalling – this is a misuse of the concept that describes someone whose primary aim is self-aggrandisement, not conscience salving, let alone a genuine practical means to a possible positive end..Those engaging in the boycott primarily want it to work. They may also be trying to salve their conscience as citizens of the West by actually doing something but as I said above I see nothing wrong with this because sadly when it comes to a country at war, and committing atrocities, the people of that country are caught up in it.
Again Niemand, I do see where you and others are coming from… I’m just having difficulty of seeing the validity of what’s proposed. To my mind it’s the targeting of potentially innocent individuals (to no real end) as a proxy for taking meaningful action agains the perpetrator (their Government). I just don’t see how that can be fair or reasonable.
I take your point about the high profile nature of what’s happening in Gaza, and it is a fair point, but this is a political blog and there might be a reasonable assumption that people reading it could/should/might be better informed than most. As such it does make the Uyghur point relevant – why target those not responsible for something you can’t change when there’s an equally horror situation you can using the same means?
I obviously alluded earlier to the financial imperative at play with one and not the other (and again, I wouldn’t support it in either case myself) but if what’s proposed can have no effect, and it’s potential targeting people who have no input/sway/responsibility, isn’t the accusation of virtue signalling the least we should be concerned about here? I’m not against action on this, I’ve highlighted what could be done on a UK basis earlier in the discussion, but I’m having real difficulty finding justification for the type being proposed here. People appear to be say that just because it’s Israel then everyone from there is fair game.
All I can say is that cultural boycotts are what they are – an attempt to isolate a state culturally as another form of pressure to get them to stop what they are doing. I have a very strong sense that those in Israel who also really want their regime to stop will understand such boycotts and accept any negative consequences it has on them. If they do not then to me they cease to be ‘innocents’.
Perhaps I can help the recent poster who could not fathom what constitutes an ‘Israeli’ cultural institution; though the concept of such a Jewish entity apparently troubled him less, at least on an intellectual level.
Having no first hand knowledge whatsoever of Israel, I shall attempt, whilst clearly showing my age, to argue by analogy as to what might constitute such in a Scottish context:
SNO
The Rangers
7/84 theatre company
Scottish Ballet
Grampian TV
CFC1888
The Sunday Post/D.C. Thompson
SFA
(For clarity, the following wouldn’t count as Scottish in this context:
The Guggenheim
La Sagrada Família
MUFC
Buenos Aires Herald
Kuala Lumpur Opera)
Evidently, argument by analogy leaves room for doubt,misinterpretation and even a sense of injustice, as the previous writer highlighted
Perhaps a very simple formula along the lines:
I/We condemn the current genocide being perpetrated 24/7 by the IDF ‘following superior orders’ issued by the Israeli government
would except organisations from such a boycott?
Hi James,
I wasn’t aware the Sagradia Familia went on tour for Spain? Seriously though, I do of course understand where you’re coming from here and also to some extent I understand. I just don’t think targeting individuals is the way.
As for the IDF (which is something of an obligation, not a voluntary role) would you be of the same opinion about Scots who have served in the UK army. Should individual soldiers who have served be shunned because of perceived injustices in Norther Ireland, Iraq, Gibraltar etc.? Should their workplaces, be they cultural or not, be targeted?
I’m not against gesture politics until it harms individuals. If people want change they need to target those in this country that can deliver it, the Government and its MPs here on the ground. Protest outside constituency offices and where surgeries are taking place etc. Make an appointment at a MPs surgery. Organise local in their conscience and write to them making clear their own voters are going to hold them to account.
I wrote a previous comment after you wrote this but without having read it, for which I apologise.
+++
Although you did read my reply regarding
what might constitute Israeli culture, you choose not to engage with it in any meaningful way.
Your prerogative
I have no quibble with your broad point that virtue signalling is present to a high degree in initiatives like this in general and indeed specifically in this case. But that in no way delivers a knock out blow to it as an initiative in this case.
You express great sympathy with the very real possibility of unfairness being visited upon the minor players caught up in these culture walls, a sympathy which seems in very marked contrast to your apparent considerable lack of expressed empathy with the dead and the maimed; victims of the genocide of the IDF in Gaza
Hi James,
Honestly, not an issue. I think if most of us miss or skip-read stuff we wish we hadn’t. I certainly know I do it more often than I should.
I suppose my responses (and general approach) are often focussed on the possible. I do have concerns about collateral damage in things if action’s taken, that we could alienate those already alienated enough at home, but that shouldn’t be taken to mean I don’t have some significant anger about what’s happening in Gaza, Lebanon etc. It’s just I don’t see the justification in targeting more innocents in this.
I can understand the Israeli government’s very real anger at Oct. 7th (it was horrific, and there’s no doubt that Hamas are a terrorsit organisation) but like many normal Israelis I abhor the manner in which that event has been addressed – to the extent that the ICC has my full support and I wholeheartedly believe that if anyone is deemed worthy of standing trial for these action then they must.
And again, I do believe that there’s more practical action that can be taken which puts pressure on the UK Government to be more vocal and not backslide on this.
The callousness of using the formulation ‘targeting innocents’ over a proposed cultural boycott in the context of some 50 000 mainly civilian victims slaughtered out of hand, often whilst cowering in schools or in hospitals, by uniformed troops of the IDF ‘following superior orders’ issued by the Israeli government merits only disdain.
Hi James,
Again, I’m not condoning the actions of the Israeli government in any way here; I’m not sure anyone but the swivel-eyed ever could, but two wrongs don’t make a right. People can’t legitimately claim to be taking action to protect the innocents by targeting other innocents.
Or is the argument that some victims would somehow be more worthy than others, that people of the jewish faith by mere dint of their place of birth are fair game regardless of their personal politics/views/stance?
I’m more than happy to consider any argument why such people should be targeted, why it’d be legitimate to do so, but there’s none being made yet.
First they came for the football fans…. ?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgv4mdr9y8o