International Publishers Call on Frankfurt to Cut Ties With Israel

Date: 01 October 2024 - 22:13

News ID: ۱۳۱۹۵۱

TEHRAN -  Publishers for
Palestine, an international coalition of more than 500 publishers, issued an open letter on Tuesday demanding that the organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) cut ties with Israel.
In the letter, the coalition, which formed last November, called for Frankfurt to “publicly denounce Israel’s regime of genocide and setter-colonial apartheid against the Palestinian people,” among other demands.
The members press in Publishers for Palestine hail from 50 countries, including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Nigeria, the Philippines, Spain, Tanzania, Turkey, Wales, and others, Publishers Weekly reported.
The U.S.-based member presses, which include several regular exhibitors at Frankfurt, are Haymarket Books, Interlink Publishing, Microcosm Publishing, OR Books, Other Press, Seven Stories Press, Sublunary Editions, and Verso Books.
The open letter comes shortly before this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, which is slated for October 16-20. Ahead of last year’s fair, held just weeks after the October 7 attack on Israel, Frankfurt director Juergen Boos expressed support for Israel with a statement saying that the fair “stands with complete solidarity on the side of Israel” and intended to highlight Israeli voices at that year’s show.
“Every year, people from more than 100 countries attend Frankfurter Buchmesse,” a Frankfurt Book Fair representative said in a statement to PW. “The book fair is a platform for democratic discourse and peaceful encounters between publishers, authors, translators, illustrators, and readers from all over the world. Our program reflects this, featuring voices from every corner of the globe.”