Authors and entertainers sign CCFP letter against Israeli literature boycott

The Creative Community for Peace letter comes during a year when antisemitism is on the rise worldwide and Israeli and Jewish writers have been the targets of boycott calls.

By HANNAH BROWN OCTOBER 30, 2024 20:44

ANTI-ISRAEL BOOKS outnumber pro-Israel books in the Middle East section of the Harvard University bookshop. (photo credit: Tomer Rayfer)

More than 1000 leading figures in the literary and entertainment industries – including Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Booker Prize winners -- signed an open letter released by the organization Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) against discriminatory boycotts on Wednesday.The letter came in response to an open letter released this week and signed by about a thousand authors and publishing industry professionals such as Sally Rooney,  Arundhati Roy, and Percival Everett, calling for a boycott of Israeli cultural and literary organizations and institutions, including publishers and literary agents. This letter cited the war against Hamas as the reason for the boycott call.The signatories of the letter published by the CCFP, which is a non-profit organization, include: Nobel Prize winning authors Elfriede Jelinek and Herta Müller; Howard Jacobson, Booker Prize-winning author;  Mayim Bialik, actress, neuroscientist and author; Dr. Simon Sebag Montefiore, historian and author; Bernard-Henri Lévy, philosopher and author; Sir Simon Schama, historian and author; Yossi Klein Halevi, author; Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and screenwriter, David Mamet; musicians Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons; actors Debra Messing, Rebecca De Nornay, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianna Margulies, and Jerry O’Connell; Douglas Murray, author; Scooter Braun, founder/CEO, Hybe America; Ynon Kreiz, chairman and CEO, Mattel, Inc.; Haim Saban, chairman and CEO, Saban Capital Group;  Aaron Bay-Schuck, CEO/Co-Chairman Warner Records; Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Pictures; Rick Rosen, co-founder, Endeavor; Jenji Kohan, writer/producer; Adam Gopnik, writer;  Diane Warren, songwriter;  Aayan Hirsi Ali, author; Lionel Shriver, author; Amy Sherman-Palladino, writer and producer; Matti Friedman, author; Neil Blair, Partner, The Blair Partnership; Anthony Julius, Attorney and Author; Ben Silverman; Chairman and Co-CEO, Propagate Content; Bret Stephens, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Jerusalem Post editor; and Fernando Szew, president, Fox Entertainment.

A Little Free Library, which was designed to look like a prison, invites residents to take books that the library says have been challenged by schools across the state of Texas, in Houston, Texas, U.S. May 3, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/CALLAGHAN O’HARE)

A year of rising antisemitism

The CCFP letter comes during a year when antisemitism is on the rise worldwide. Israeli and Jewish writers have been the targets of boycott calls.  Bookstore appearances by Jewish authors and readings have been canceled and last week, publications refused to run ads and bookstores declined to publicize Bernard-Henri Levi’s latest book, Israel Alone, because the word “Israel” is in its title.The CCFP letter reads in part:  “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… We believe that anyone who works to subvert this spirit merely adds yet another roadblock to freedom, justice, equality, and peace that we all desperately desire.”CCFP executive director Ari Ingel said, “Authors, writers, and literary groups have faced non-stop harassment by a dedicated group of illiberal activists since October 7th. 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. These boycott calls, now being led by members of the literary community themselves, are reminiscent of the 1933 boycott of Jewish authors, when antisemites burned over 25,000 books. 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.” CCFP released a number of statements by the signatories along with the letter. Booker Prize-winning author, 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 where a door should be forever open, the boycotters slam it closed.”Author of the Jack Reacher novel series, Lee Child said: “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.”Mayim Bialik said, “Harassing authors, canceling bookstore appearances, and boycotting people based solely on their identity is disturbing and polarizing in ways that cannot be dismissed or minimized. Attempts to dictate ‘who’ or ‘what’ should be published have nothing to do with any path to coexistence or peace. This kind of rhetoric encourages demonization and hatred. As an author and as a creative, I believe in peace, I believe in humanity, and I believe in meaningful discourse. Silencing and sowing discord in this way reduces complex individuals to oversimplified caricatures which only hardens existing hostility and makes the hope for peace inch farther away.”

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Bernard-Henri Lévy said: “I have always believed in the power of ideas and truth. I have always been in favor of debate, clash of opinions, even the confrontation of convictions. But what we have here is not a clash of opinions or a debate. Boycotting Israeli writers, publishers and festivals is pure anti-Semitism – and it’s anti-democratic and dangerous. The goal of this boycott is the delegitimization of the only Jewish state in the world—Israel. It is a moral obscenity and must be firmly condemned by all free-thinking and democratic citizens of the world.”Simon Sebag Montefiore said: “The resort to witch hunt is always dangerous and ugly especially when the inquisitors are writers. History 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?”The CCFP letter concludes: “We call 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.”