DUBAI: Nobel Prize-winning author J. M. Coetzee has refused an invitation to attend an upcoming literary festival in Israel and has criticized the country’s actions in Gaza in a strongly worded letter to organizers.
Writing ahead of the Jerusalem International Writers Festival, Coetzee said: “It will take many years for Israel to clear its name.”
The 86-year-old writer, born in South Africa and now based in Australia, sent the letter in November to Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler, the festival’s artistic director. Although she later referenced the contents in comments to Israeli media, the full correspondence has now been sent directly to The Guardian newspaper.
Responding to an invitation to participate in the festival, scheduled for May 25-28, Coetzee declined the offer, and wrote: “I wish to state the grounds on which I do so. For the past two years the state of Israel has been conducting a genocidal campaign in Gaza that has been vastly disproportionate to the murderous provocation of Oct. 7, 2023.
“This campaign, conducted by the IDF, appears to have had the enthusiastic support of the vast majority of Israel’s population. For this reason it is not possible for any considerable sector of Israeli society, including its intellectual and arts community, to claim that it should not share in the blame for the atrocities in Gaza.”
Coetzee also reflected on his earlier support for Israel, writing: “Until recently Israel enjoyed a broad measure of support in the West. I would number myself among such supporters. I kept telling myself that surely the day was coming when the Israeli people would have a change of heart and deliver some form of justice to the Palestinian people whose land they had taken over.”
He noted that he visited Jerusalem in 1987 to receive the Jerusalem Prize, but added that “the campaign of annihilation in Gaza has changed all that.”
He wrote: “Long-time supporters of Israel have turned away in revulsion at the actions of the Israeli military. It will take many years for Israel to clear its name, assuming that it wishes to do so, and to re-establish itself in the international community.”
Coetzee is widely regarded as one of the most celebrated living writers. He has received the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.
A UN special committee of inquiry in September 2025 concluded that Israel’s conduct in Gaza — including large-scale civilian deaths, severe humanitarian conditions and remarks by senior officials — amounted to “direct evidence of genocidal intent.”
Amnesty International has also accused Israel of continuing acts of genocide during the ceasefire period, citing ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure and restrictions on humanitarian and medical aid entering Gaza.
