More than 1,000 authors, publishers and literary workers have signed an open letter to boycott Israeli cultural and academic institutions that refuse to denounce Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian people.
The letter, which organizers characterize as “the biggest cultural boycott against Israeli cultural institutions in history,” is signed by numerous Bay Area authors, including Judith Butler, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Malcolm Harris, Rachel Kushner and Robert Liu-Trujillo.
“We cannot in good conscience engage with Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to apartheid and displacement,” the letter reads. “This was the position taken by countless authors against South Africa; it was their contribution to the struggle against apartheid there.”
Signees of the letter include winners and finalists for nearly every major literary award, including the Booker Prizes, the Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Award. Earlier this year, the organization PEN America canceled its ceremony after 9 of 10 award recipients withdrew over the group’s stance on Israel.
