Poet withdraws from Edinburgh Book Festival over 'genocide apologists'

The Herald Scotland

14-07-2025

But in a statement shared on social media he said he was withdrawing over what he called "the festival's insensitive (to say the least) invitation of at least two genocide apologists during Israel's relentless extermination of the Palestinian people".
Joudah's announcement on X, posted on Sunday, July 13, was referring to writer Etgar Keret and journalist Anshel Pfeffer, who are both from Israel and appear in the festival's programme.
He said: "The festival knew what it was doing when it invited Keret and Pfeffer.
"A lack of common decency is a genocide's best friend in a cultural system that continues to endorse the genocide. I will respect my living and my dead."
Etgar Keret had been billed to to discuss his new collection, Autocorrect, in conversation with British writer Daniel Hahn. However the event has now been cancelled.
Asked why he'd pulled out, Mr Keret told The Herald: "With the mess my country is currently in I feel there are more urgent issues for me to talk about. It is frustrating but compared to what's going on in my region it feels like discovering a pimple while having a heart attack."
Meanwhile the event featuring Anshel Pfeffer, Israel correspondent for the Economist, is going ahead as planned and will look "behind the curtain of Israeli Politics," according to the festival's website.
The programme states: "Few writers are better placed than Pfeffer to offer a critical understanding of the political psyche of Israel and the on-the-ground situation for Israelis and Palestinians at this calamitous moment."
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A spokesperson for Edinburgh International Book Festival said: "The Book Festival has a long history of presenting Palestinian voices and since 2016 has hosted over 60 events directly on Israel and Palestine with sensitivity and care.
"At this critical and distressing time, we respect and acknowledge the right of authors to choose which festival programmes to participate in and work with all of our authors to support them to take part.'
It is the latest in a string of controversies surrounding the book festival, with some criticising an invitation for former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and lack of gender critical authors on the line-up.
In 2023 climate activist Greta Thunberg was due to appear but pulled out in opposition to the festival's long-standing relationship with Edinburgh-based investment firm Baillie Gifford and its links with the fossil fuels industry.
Pressure from climate campaigners to cut ties with Baillie Gifford culminated in organisers ending the partnership last year.
They said the festival's board and management had 'collectively agreed' to end the 20-year relationship with its biggest sponsor, while director Jenny Niven said the pressure on her staff had 'simply become intolerable".
Edinburgh-based authors Sir Ian Rankin and Jenny Colgan, alongside the Scottish Government and the People's Postcode Lottery, have since stepped in to help plug the funding hole left by the decision.
The event, which dates back to 1983, has also attracted new backing from the Edinburgh-based legal firm Digby Brown and additional support from the Hawthornden Foundation, which was set up by the late Drue Heinz, a long-time supporter of Scottish culture who funded a number of literary retreats.