LONDON: A group of more than 200 writers in the UK have signed an open letter calling for a boycott of Israel.
The letter, which demands ties be severed with Israel until sufficient aid supplies are delivered to Gaza, comes after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned that famine was gripping the Palestinian enclave.
Israel imposed a blockade in Gaza in March following the collapse of a ceasefire between the Israeli government and Hamas. Shipments of aid restarted in May, but 197 people have now died in Gaza of hunger-related conditions since the outbreak of hostilities on Oct. 7, 2023.
Signatories include Zadie Smith, Michael Rosen, Irvine Welsh, Hanif Kureishi, Brian Eno, Elif Shafak, George Monbiot and Geoff Dyer, among others.
In the letter, the writers “call on all people, institutions, governments and states to observe an immediate and complete boycott of all forms of trade, exchange and business with the state of Israel until the people of Gaza are adequately provided with drinking water, food and medical supplies, and until all other forms of relief and necessity are restored to the people of Gaza under the aegis of the United Nations.”
The letter was co-organized by Horatio Clare, who was also behind another letter in March signed by writers accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
In the new letter, the signatories said: “We make this call because the words and feelings of millions of people and thousands of politicians worldwide have failed to bring about the feeding of the people of Gaza, the protection of civilians or their supply with humanitarian and medical aid.
“We regret that this boycott affects a great many individuals and groups in Israel and other countries who share our rejection of the policies of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu; individuals and groups whose pain and compassion for the people of Gaza we share.”
The signatories said that the boycott should stay in place until the civilian population of Gaza is judged to be “safe and in receipt of adequate food and aid” by the UN.
They called for the “return of all hostages and those imprisoned without charge or trial on all sides,” an “end to settler violence against Palestinians on the West Bank” and “the immediate and permanent ceasefire and cessation of violence by Hamas and Israel.
“We stand in solidarity with the resistance of Palestinian, Jewish and Israeli people to the genocidal policies of the current Israeli government,” the writers added.
“We note that prominent and respected Israeli and Jewish groups in Israel and other countries, including many of our fellow writers, have recently called for serious and impactful sanctions on Israeli institutions, to which we add, on, and only on, objectively culpable individuals. A boycott is the only sanction an individual can apply.
“In calling for and observing this boycott, we assert without reservation our absolute opposition to and loathing of antisemitism, of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli prejudice.
“We reject and abhor attacks, hate and violence — in writing, speech and action — against Palestinian, Israeli, and Jewish people in all and any form.”
