'Virtual' Book Burning

Jewish, Israeli and Zionist-linked authors find themselves increasingly sidelined in today’s publishing industry.

Among Sigmund Freud’s many notable quotes, in 1933 when Hitler came into power, he commented wistfully, 'What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.' It was the first year of the Nazi regime in Germany, and of course there was far worse to come. And as Freud woke up to the fact that once again there was an intent to burn him and his family alongside many of the Jews of Europe, he made desperate efforts to save himself and his family.

Freud was able to get safe passage for himself, his wife and daughter to England – aided by the intervention and pleas from many notables, including H.G. Wells and Salvador Dali – but was unable to save his four elder sisters, all of whom perished in Nazi death camps. He also had to leave all his property and wealth behind in Vienna.

But the start point of the Nazi’s purge against Jews was through restricting them from various professions along with book burning. Area restrictions finally leading to ghettos and death camps followed. The horrors of that period of history are so well known that alongside the Jewish heartfelt lament and rigid promise of ‘Never again’, those in Europe and the West have understandably been echoing that sentiment. Until recently, that is.

Of course, it seems unthinkable that those dark days of Jewish boycotting and restrictions would return to the streets of Europe and the West in today’s more enlightened and liberal age. But perhaps it’s seeped in so gradually, in such slow-drip stages, that many haven’t even noticed. And, of course, they’ve avoided the actual practice of book-burning, which would have inflamed world-wide headlines, instead opting for banning or sidelining Jewish, Israeli and Zionist-linked authors – which amounts to the same thing. Welcome to today’s modern-day equivalent of book burning: ‘Cancel culture.’

The first alarm of this happening came with a Daily Telegraph article in late 2024 about many Jewish or Zionist-linked authors finding themselves dropped or sidelined by literary agents and publishers. As Telegraph journalist Eleanor Steafel wrote ‘… Authors, agents, scouts and publishers spoke of the growing sense of discomfort and ostracization they have experienced in their industry since the October 7^th attacks. Many say a quiet but pervasive anti-Semitism – a sense of “Jews don’t count”, as one author put it – has begun to creep in.’ In another interview, an agent was told that their client’s book was ‘a bit too Jewish’ to get published.

There have been various grades to this boycotting: an Israeli author would stand little chance of getting published in the current climate, a Zionist-linked or supporting author hardly better, and Jewish authors would get published purely according to subject matter: a book about the Israel-Palestine conflict would be a complete no-no – unless it supported the Palestinian viewpoint – but even books (as above) that were seen as ‘too Jewish’ would likely get a thumbs-down. With the only notable exception, books about the holocaust. As Dara Horn once commented, ‘People love dead Jews. Live Jews, not so much.’

But this didn’t all happen in a vacuum and there has in fact been a build up to it for some while, mainly through BDS – Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Founded in 2005, the initial aim of BDS was to boycott or prevent Israeli or Western companies from operating in the Palestinian West Bank. One of the most notable companies to bend to BDS pressure was ice-cream manufacturers Ben & Jerry’s. But their decision not to sell in the West Bank was later overturned by parent company Unilever, who then continued to sell Ben & Jerry’s there through an independent distributor.

One area BDS obviously haven’t bothered to check is with local Palestinians working for Israeli and international companies in the West Bank, who generally are in favour of these companies operating there – mainly because anything from 40-60% of the labour employed are local Palestinians, including many in management, and generally at wages 50-60% above what they would earn in Palestinian Authority territory. But they generally keep that quiet in case they get accused of ‘normalization’, so polls of Palestinians outside of this employment sphere might give a different picture.

BDS has for many years been unpopular with Jews both in Israel and outside because it uncomfortably reflects the early days of Nazi Germany, whereby Jews were restricted from certain trades, practices and areas – with ghettoization and death camps following shortly after.

There have been a number of academic boycotts successfully achieved through BDS activity over the years, and since October 7^th a growing number of authors have jumped on that bandwagon by refusing to have their books published in Israel, one proclaiming bluntly, ‘While the genocide in Gaza is continuing.’

But the most notable case came in 2021 when Irish author, Sally Rooney, refused to have her third book published in Israel. Rooney also seems to be joining yet another bandwagon here by echoing the growing Irish antipathy to Israel this past few decades – although that hasn’t always been the case. Today’s Irish anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian stance stems from the fact that they see in that conflict a reflection of their own struggle against British rule. But the struggles of early Jews/Zionists were also against the British to finally form Israel, which is why at that stage the Irish were fully supportive of Israel. Their struggle stood on all fours with the Israeli struggle.

Even after the 1948 war and the formation of Israel, Irish support remained strong. In their view, British Imperialism/Colonialism had merely been replaced with pan-Arab Colonialism, with a small, beleaguered nation, Israel, formed from a rag-tag bunch of refugees, surrounded by much larger, powerful nations – Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon – all vying for its destruction. It wasn’t until years after the 1967 war when the Palestinians were seen as more isolated in their struggle that the Irish reaction to Israel started to change. The reason I’m particularly au-fait with this is that my mother was Irish and very much part of that ‘old-school’ of Irish support for Israel. But this might be a tad too much history for Sally Rooney to bother to check on before joining the Irish bandwagon with her knee-jerk response.

Rooney was also part of a wave of over a thousand academic and industry figures who called for a cultural boycott of Israel last October, with the Gaza war of this last year merely adding impetus to BDS campaigning that has been active for many years. Championing the cause for various artists, writers and musicians, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd has by far been the most virulent BDS activist, vocally lambasting a number of fellow musicians for concert appearances in Israel.

But this final action of an official calling for a cultural boycott of Israel last October – and no doubt part of the undercurrent of anti-Israel sentiment that has seen Jewish and Zionist-linked authors sidelined and boycotted this past year – has in the end sparked a serious backlash from the artistic community.

Scrolling down the list of 1,100 BDS supporters, you’ll see a handful of famous names. But the backlash from the artistic community organized by CCFP – Creative Community For Peace – has already gained 47,300 signatories and counting, with the list including hundreds of famous names: Lee Child, Rihanna, Paul McCartney, Howard Jacobson, Bernard Henri-Levy, Jennifer Lopez, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Douglas Murray, Steven Spielberg, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, Alicia Keys, Clean Bandit, Boy George, Robbie Williams, Ziggy Marley… the list of famous names is endless.

Author Lee Child commented, ‘Targeting novelists, authors, and publishing houses based on their nationality is misguided. At a time when dialogue is paramount and when compromise can lead to peace, castigation and blanket boycotts are counterproductive.’ With Booker Prize-winning author, Howard Jacobson, adding: ‘Art is the antithesis to a political party. It is a meeting place not an echo chamber. Art explores, discovers, differs, questions and surprises. Precisely where a door should be forever open, the boycotters slam it closed.’

An avalanche of supportive comments from other writers, artists and musicians has followed, which is encouraging – but will it be enough to stem the tide of this current boycott-wave against Jewish and Zionist-linked authors? If we follow the example of Freud in 1933, while letters of support from prominent writers were enough to save him and his immediate family from the death-camps, it did little to save other writers or indeed his four elder sisters. Sadly, the same might be found now: that the roots of this current purge go deeper than many realize, with BDS alone being active for almost twenty years - so unless this backlash builds to momentous proportions, only the tip of the iceberg might be saved from the affect of this boycott.

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John Matthews is an experienced writer and journalist. The author of 24 books, including two centred around WW2 and the holocaust in the name of J.C. Maetis (his father’s original Jewish name) his first experience of writing about the Middle East came as a war correspondent covering the last years of the Lebanese Civil War, which led to his second book, ‘The Crescents of the Moon’. He has since written on the subject for a number of journals, including The Times, Sunday Times, Newsweek, The Independent and The Spectator. He was also in the run-up to the millennium editor of European Brief, the main magazine for the European Parliament, editing the likes of Tony Blair, Al Gore and Henry Kissinger on subjects ranging from the fall of the Berlin Wall and European unity, climate change and nuclear fusion to, once again, the Middle East. He lives in London with his wife and family.

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