"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."
"Every writer wishes to be published everywhere," said Viet Thanh Nguyen, the Pulitzer-winning author. "But I have told my Israeli publisher that if they will not support the basic principles expressed in this letter - an end to complicity with Israel's apartheid and full rights for Palestinians - I cannot approve the forthcoming publication of my book, The Refugees."
The letter invites others in the literary world to sign on, calling on '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.'
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.
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