Nobel laureate JM Coetzee has declined an invitation to an upcoming literature festival in Israel, penning a letter to organisers that is essentially the literary equivalent of 'It's not you, it's the ongoing genocide.' The 86-year-old author, born in apartheid South Africa and now residing in Australia, wrote to the Jerusalem international writers festival in November, but his excoriating reply has only now come to light.
In his letter, Coetzee stated, '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 7 October 2023.' He added that the campaign 'appears to have had the enthusiastic support of the vast majority of Israel’s population,' meaning no sector of society, including its intellectual and arts community, can claim innocence. Coetzee, who previously supported Israel and visited in 1987 to accept the Jerusalem prize, declared that 'the campaign of annihilation in Gaza has changed all that,' and that 'it will take many years for Israel to clear its name.'
The festival's artistic director, Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler, revealed Coetzee's refusal in April to Israeli press, calling it an 'especially harsh response' that 'shocked' her. In her own reply, she appealed to Coetzee's anti-apartheid credentials, writing, 'As a South African writer who fought apartheid, I would have expected - or perhaps dreamed - that you would extend a hand to me.'
Coetzee, arguably the world's most decorated living author with two Booker prizes and a 2003 Nobel, rarely makes public appearances. The Jerusalem festival, running 25 to 28 May, has previously hosted literary heavyweights like Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, and Jonathan Franzen. Meanwhile, a UN special committee found 'direct evidence of genocidal intent' in Israel's actions, and Amnesty International says the genocide continues even during the ceasefire.