Open (Letter) Season
The literary world continues to be at the vanguard of attempts to isolate and delegitimize Jewish voices except those that actively denounce Israel’s very existence.
has been doing an excellent job keeping up with the industry organizations and publications actively excluding the multiplicity of Jewish voices while hiding behind the inclusion of anti-Zionist Jews to claim inclusivity. She is the person who first alerted me to a new open letter “Israeli publishers, festivals, literary agencies and publications that are ‘complicit in violating Palestinian rights,’ including ‘whitewashing and justifying Israel’s occupation, apartheid, or genocide.’”
In the corners of the internet where I gather with other Jewish writers, everyone is rightfully disgusted by this. But in that disgust, I think we might be overlooking something very important… and in overlooking it, give literary organizations and institutions a pass on doing the same.
A great number of the signatories to the letter are not authors, they are journalists and activists whose writing isn’t included under the umbrella of “literary” works. (I am a little allergic to that word, but here I think it’s necessary to distinguish writers calling for a boycott of something they could reasonably expect to participate in, and writers whose work falls outside the interest of literary festivals, publishers, and agents.) Names that we might have expected to see—like Ta-Nehisi Coates, for instance—aren’t there, and while it’s an intimidatingly long list, it’s light on literary voices. (If you really must see the names, perhaps to check to see who is not the friend you thought they were, here it is.)
There is, however, a second open letter, this one spearheaded by Creative Community for Peace, brings together authors, publishing professionals, and people in the entertainment industry to stand against cultural boycotts. You’ll find more names you recognize on this list of signatories. For example:
Gene Simmons from KISS:
Author, Poet, and Nobel Prize Award Winner Herta Müller:
Author, Playwright, and Pulitzer Prize Winner David Mamet:
Booker Prize-winning Author Howard Jacobson:
Actress Julianna Margulies:
and a lot of other people whose work you actually know and admire. The list continues to grow on both letters, but I’m happy to be on this one.
“Politically targeting novelists, authors, and publishing houses based on their nationality is misguided. At a time when dialogue is paramount and when compromise can lead to peace, castigation and blanket boycotts are counterproductive. The written word, and the dissemination of it, must always be protected, especially in times of heightened tension. And to achieve peace, we must humanize one another and build bridges across communities through the open exchange of ideas. Literature allows for that. Boycotts hinder it.” — Lee Child, author the Jack Reacher novel series
So after you have doom-scrolled the list of people signing the pro-boycott letter sponsored by PalFest, Books Against Genocide, Book Workers for a Free Palestine, Publishers for Palestine, Writers Against the War on Gaza and Fossil Free Books, take a moment to also scroll through the names on the letter decrying the call for a cultural boycott. You will be heartened. No matter who you are, I guarantee there will be the name of someone whose work you admire on it.
For instance, Dominik is pretty excited that this guy signed it:
If we are known by the company we keep, I am glad to be in company with you, my friends, and with these luminaries in their various arts.
On Sally Rooney’s shunning list I see writers I’ve been in residency with, writers I’ve studied with, and editors whose litmags I’ve subscribed to. I no longer feel safe around any of them. So disappointing.
And I am glad to be with YOU!