Israeli and Jewish authors have been silenced following the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack — not specifically for their opinions, but for their nationality and ethnicity.
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PEN America, an organization that advocates for free expression and the rights of writers, recently wrote about the growing climate of exclusion directed at Israeli and Jewish authors in the publishing world. The report is based on interviews with more than 30 Israeli and Jewish writers, literary agents, translators, publishers, and other professionals. They describe increasing difficulty getting books published, finding literary representation, or participating in cultural events since the Hamas terrorist attack and the ensuing war in Gaza.
PEN America notes that while “Palestinian and pro-Palestinian writers, artists, and activists have faced dire consequences for their expression,” it’s not all about the content on the other side. “Israeli and Jewish writers and artists on all sides of the conflict have been silenced and faced a range of threats and repercussions.”
Jerusalem literary agent Deborah Harris told PEN America that before Oct. 7, her agency routinely sold several Israeli novels each year into the U.S. market. Since then, she said, “they have not sold a single one.” Harris recounted that longtime editors either stopped responding or discouraged future submissions. “The standard line is, ‘I wouldn’t know how to publish this author right now,’” she said. “Right now, we’re completely in this place where no one will even look.”
Writers and others in the Israeli and Jewish literary community, in interviews with PEN America, reported event disinvitations and cancellations, and new and growing barriers to publication. They also recounted being harassed on social media, review-bombed on Goodreads, and subjected to online calls not to be read, platformed, or engaged with if they had ever shown support for Israel or Zionism. Some writers described being ignored by agents, publishers, literary journals, and magazines. Many requested anonymity to protect their safety and careers.
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It is difficult to assess how much of what the writers PEN America spoke to are experiencing stems from cultural boycotts and broader efforts to protest the war; how much from anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, or antisemitic sentiment; and how much reflects matters of business or taste, which are also shaped by geopolitics.
But the writers’ accounts revealed the blatant hostility, discrimination, and hate that some Jewish and Israeli authors are facing, and the impact on their freedom of expression.
The report also includes accounts from writers who say they have been urged to remove Jewish characters, references to Israel, or expressions of Jewish identity from their work because publishers fear the books will not sell. “There’s basically a silent moratorium, or at least it seems like that, about Jewish material that’s not explicitly anti-Israel,” one unidentified author told PEN America.
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