Thousands of artists including rock stars and intellectuals have protested against a petition to boycott publishers, book fairs and publications that are Israeli or have not condemned the IDF for fighting against Hamas following the October 7th attacks, Ynet reports.

Among those signing are Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, French intellectual and author Bernard Henri Levi and Booker prize winning novelist Howard Jacobson

Palestine Festival of Literature and Fossil Free Books issued a petition calling for the boycott of Israeli cultural and entertainment companies and organizations claiming they are “complicit in genocide.”

The signatories also said they could not “in good conscience engage with Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to apartheid and displacement.”

Prominent signers of the petition are: Sally Rooney, Arundhati Roy, Gillian Slovo, William Dalrymple, Guardian columnist Owen Jones, children’s author Michael Rosen and actress Miriam Margolyes.

Those who signed stated their commitment to avoid any individuals and organizations participating in “discriminatory policies and practices” or contributing to “whitewashing and justifying Israel’s occupation, apartheid, or genocide.”

Howard Jacobson said he was “staggered” that those supporting the petition thought they could silence other writers.

Jews in the publishing industry told Ynet, insisting on anonymity, that they weren’t sure how these boycotts would affect their companies.

One of them lamented, “I think this will make people who already feel uncomfortable [in the literary world] even more deeply uncomfortable”.

To counter the boycott, the Creative Community for Peace pointed out that “any Israeli and/or Jewish author or festival that didn’t disavow Israel [was] being harassed and targeted for condemnation, with book readings being shut down, and authors being excluded from festivals”.

The organization added “A prominent trade publication refused to advertise a new book because it feared the word Israel in its title might upset its audience.”

Image - UWI/Shutterstock