Publishers For Palestine

We ask all publishers who have not yet done so to sign on to PACBI, the Palestinian campaign for the cultural boycott of Israel. We must each do our part to make the boycott of Israel’s complicit academic and cultural institutions overwhelming and definitive: /pacbi

Today we are pleased to be releasing POEMS for PALESTINE: Recent poems by nine Palestinian poets & actions you can take to stop genocide now POEMS for PALESTINE is available for free in downloadable print and online versions on our website, and features Palestinian poetry, artwork, and some resource tools including information on BDS and PACBI. Please share and distribute freely. Not for resale unless donating proceeds to a trusted source for on-the-ground aid efforts. The situation in Gaza is one of unimaginable horror, and action of all kinds is urgently needed. The world is demanding that Israel stop its cruel and brutal assault on Rafah, but as world leaders slowly begin to halt arms shipments, cancel trade deals, and distance themselves diplomatically from Israel, change still isn’t happening fast enough and we still have no ceasefire. Everyone out in the streets, pressuring governments, and speaking up for Palestinian liberation, is playing a role in moving toward the first demand: a permanent ceasefire. As Refaat Alareer called for: More pressure. More protests. More activism. With poetry from: Refaat Al-Areer, Fady Joudah, Hiba Abu Nada, Olivia Elias, Samer Abu Hawwash, Maya Murry, Ahlam Bsharat, Basman Aldirawi, and Ghassan Zaqtan. With artwork from: Jana Traboulsi, @bambiprikt , @sohilaakhaled_ , Gabriela Araújo @mgabrielaaraujo , Rand Salim Hammoud @Zaafa_art , Eline Van Dam @zelootillustrations , Aly S.Elsayed aly.selsayed, Hassan Manasrah @hassan.manasrah.illustrations

Today we’re launching our censorship tracking project to document crackdowns on Palestinian solidarity and the silencing of Palestinian voices in publishing. Read more about the project and use the form on our website to report: https://shorturl.at/dgjuz The firing, contract terminations, removal of books from publishers’ lists, event cancellations, and other forms of silencing of book industry workers and authors is inexcusable. The vilification of Palestinian solidarity and resistance will not go unaccounted for. If you are facing punishment for your solidarity with Palestine in the spheres of writing, publishing, or bookselling, or if you have witnessed censorship of Palestinian voices and solidarity in the book industry, please document this and let us know. #censorship #ReadPalestine

“We fear I$real first before our families, always” 💔🇵🇸 Toronto and the Western world celebrate Pride this weekend, but it’s crucial to remember: Israel’s ‘pinkwashing’ hides the reality of the ongoing genocide. In Palestine, queer lives are endangered simply for being Palestinian. 🎥: @vianneyharelly Poem: @publishers4palestine

In a moment of disgrace for the German publishing industry, Anne Applebaum has been named recipient of the 2024 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, an annual award of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. The Frankfurt Book Fair has also publicly congratulated Applebaum, who is scheduled to receive the award during FBM 2024 on October 20th. In 2002, Applebaum wrote an article in Slate praising the destruction of Palestinian radio and television outlets entitled, “Kill the Messenger: Why Palestine radio and TV studios are fair targets in the Palestine/Israeli war.“

Please help share this new petition to the American Booksellers Association! https://shorturl.at/pVdK1 “This open letter is written both in grief and protest. To our government, the government of Israel, the ABA, and the entire bookselling industry, we say no more weapons, no more death, no more voices under the rubble begging to be heard. CEASEFIRE NOW. End the genocide.”

From Séamas O'Reilly, writing in @irish_examiner in support of Fossil Free Books, and about the importance of holding financial conglomerates up to appropriate scrutiny. 💡 Read the full article in our stories and linktree!

This #indiebookshopweek , @lighthousebks reflects on community, festivals, and Fossil Free Books. 🌱 Link in our bio to the full write up 🔗 [Alt text and image descriptions in comments]

“Here’s an even better way to avoid embarrassment … cut ties with a company that builds weapons being used to kill children.” The Giller Prize, one of Canada’s top literary prizes, is partly funded through Scotiabank, a banking giant and major arts funder whose 500 million dollar stake in Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems has caused enormous backlash in the literary and broader arts community. Scotiabank has now halved that stake after ongoing pressure campaigns of @stopartwashing @wawog_to and others, but full divestment is the goal. "A literary organization more afraid of losing corporate sponsors than of losing authors has failed to understand something fundamental about what it means to write. 'Writers are people whose job it is to say what it means to be human,' says El Akkad." Read the article in the Walrus at https://shorturl.at/LYTnC

HAPPENING THIS FRIDAY 🍉NO PRIDE WITHOUT PALESTINE: A Virtual Reading will be held on JUNE 14, 2024 from 6:30PM - 8:00PM EST over Zoom webinar 🍉this event is an act of solidarity and activism; together, as journals and writers, we speak out against the rampant rainbow-washing that has become commonplace during Pride month, and to call on our queer and non-queer kin to commit to a Free Palestine 🍉to attend the event, please to donate a minimum of $5 to LIFE FOR GAZA, a fundraiser working to restore clean water to hundreds of thousands of trapped Gazans on the ground; then, please send a screenshot of your donation to STS@GMU.EDU to receive your unique link to attend. 🍉to donate to LIFE FOR GAZA, please visit: /campaign/6737?lang=en 🍉for full event details, please visit: /event/no-pride-without-palestine

Despite the fact that investment firm Baillie Gifford, “has previously defended its record, saying it is not a major fossil fuel investor and described claims that it had significant amounts of money in the occupied Palestinian territories as “offensively misleading,” “ today, Fossil Free Books and The Herald have exposed the fact that Baillie Gifford has investments through arms company Babcock International, amounting to £61M (over 77million USD) in Israeli arms manufacturers and contractors. These include Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and Elbit Systems. Baillie Gifford (2022 assets 223 billion GBP—over 283 billion USD) has been vilifying authors connected to the Fossil Free Books (FFB) campaign for divestment from fossil fuels and Israeli apartheid since their efforts resulted in significant recent successes, where Hay Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival have ended their relationships with BG. The firm then announced last week that it would pull funding from all literary festivals. Read the Fossil Free Books press release here: https://shorturl.at/1waFY visit them for more at @fossilfreebooks and find the Herald story here: https://shorturl.at/Y8l4u

En los últimos meses nos hemos percatado de la creciente instrumentalización del antisemitismo por parte de los grupos sionistas en todo el mundo, incluso aquellos que se identifican con los feminismos. Recientemente en una plática titulada *¿Es Palestina una cuestión feminista? Sobre la imbricación del feminismo (queer) y el antisemitismo*, Cordula Trunk planteó que los grupos feministas queer y descoloniales que se han solidarizado con el pueblo palestino están informados por una lectura vulgar del poscolonialismo que es racista y antisemita. Trunk, de la mano de l*s organizador*s del evento, se presentan a sí mism*s como portador*s de la interpretación “correcta” de lo que es ser feminista. Los transfeminismos descoloniales y anticoloniales, por definición, combaten los proyectos coloniales de construcción de Estado y, por tanto, son antisionistas, no antisemitas. Como ha señalado Nadia Abu El Haj con gran agudeza, “el antisemitismo, la islamofobia y el racismo antipalestino se dirigen contra las personas por lo que son o, quizás más exactamente, por lo que se supone que son. Como actos de habla, constituyen discursos racistas y de odio. El antisionismo, por el contrario, se dirige contra un proyecto de construcción de Estado y un régimen político. Equiparar el antisionismo a los tres primeros es cometer un error categórico”. El día de la charla nos reunimos junto con otros grupos y personas a leer textos afuera del salón de la charla. Entre ellos, leímos el manifiesto feminista en solidaridad con Palestina publicado en noviembre por @accionglobalfeminista una red de movimientos feministas y transfeministas del Sur Global, comprometidos con la articulación transfronteriza contra toda forma de opresión y en defensa de la vida. Para esta acción imprimimos el manifiesto en español y lo tradujimos al inglés, hindi y alemán. En el diseño, traducción, edición y producción del fanzine participaron: @isabelprade @ohgrito @lagrimas_lagrimogenas_ @damijan.julija @sancarnaval @luantifa @azapatat @kstyo_spinosa También leímos textos que @abyayaladescolonial @martx_viena @estudioelgozo y @camp4palestine_vienna compartieron. ¡Palestina Libre! 🇵🇸