Over 1,000 literary and entertainment stars from around the globe have signed an open letter in support of freedom of expression and against discriminatory boycotts.
The signatories of the letter include Lee Child, the creator of Jack Reacher, philosopher Bernard Henri-Lévy, Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller, actor Jeff Garlin, historians Sir Simon Schama and Simon Sebag Montefiore, novelist Howard Jacobson and musicians Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons of Seventies rock band Kiss.
This broad and united call from prominent members of the literature and entertainment world to unequivocally voice support against boycotts represents the first of its kind.
Last week, an online petition was launched calling for a boycott on Israeli publishers, book festivals, literary agencies, and publications, organised by the Palestine Festival of Literature, attracting support from authors Sally Rooney and Arundhati Roy.
The letter in response, published on Tuesday, states that regardless of one’s own view on the war in the Middle East, “boycotts of creatives and creative institutions simply create more divisiveness and foment further hatred.”
It adds, referencing October 7, that the signatories “continue to be shocked and disappointed to see members of the literary community harass and ostracise their colleagues because they don’t share a one-sided narrative in response to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
The motivation behind cultural boycotts, it argues, is “illiberal and dangerous”, and contrary to the “liberal values most writers hold sacred”.
“In fact,” the letter continues, “we believe that writers, authors, and books – along with the festivals that showcase them – bring people together, transcend boundaries, broaden awareness, open dialogue, and can affect positive change.”
It concludes by calling on “our friends and colleagues worldwide to join us in expressing their support for Israeli and Jewish publishers, authors and all book festivals, publishers, and literary agencies that refuse to capitulate to censorship based on identity or litmus tests.”
Other signatories of the letter, rejecting boycotts against authors and literary institutions, includes essayist Adam Gopnik, Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet, actresses Mayim Bialik, Debra Messing and Julianna Margulies, investor Haim Seban and Nobel Prize Award winner Elfriede Jelinek.
Historian, presenter and author, Simon Sebag Montefiore. Byline John Nguyen/JNVisuals 12/10/2022
Sebag Montefiore commented that the “resort to witch hunt is always dangerous and ugly especially when the inquisitors are writers.”
History, he said, is “full of examples of self-righteous cadres of self-appointed judges who tried to enforce their version of purity by excluding people. Whatever one thinks of this tragic Middle Eastern war, who judges who is good, who bad? Once started where would it stop? Who is pure enough?”
Booker Prize-winning author and journalist, Howard Jacobson, said art is the “antithesis to a political party. It is a meeting place not an echo chamber. Art explores, discovers, differs, questions and surprises. Precisely when a door should be forever open, the boycotters slam it closed.”
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The letter cites incidents in the last year, which saw bookstores cancelling appearances based on authors’ identities, book readings being forcibly shut down, and anti-Israel activists publishing a list of “Zionist” authors to harass.
Executive director of the Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), a non-profit entertainment industry organisation that organised the letter, Ari Ingel, said: “Authors, writers, and literary groups have faced non-stop harassment by a dedicated group of illiberal activists since October 7. This is not just about Israeli authors. This is a coordinated campaign to bully and threaten anyone who refuses to condemn Israel, which targets Jews and their allies worldwide.”
He said the attempts to boycott are reminiscent of the 1933 Nazi Germany boycott of Jewish businesses and burning of over 25,000 books by Jewish authors. “The works of Jewish authors like Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, alongside American works by Ernest Hemingway and Helen Keller were burned. This is where things are once again headed,” he said.
Writing for the JC this week, Michael Etherton, the chief executive of UK Jewish Film Festival, which begins next week, warned against the “erasure of British Jewish culture from national cultural life”, as Jewish creatives face “deafening silence and avoidance tactics” from mainstream arts organisations since October 7.
