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Nadine Gordimer Under Pressure to Boycott Israeli Writers’ Festival

Nadine Gordimer–South African, Jewish, Nobelist–is under pressure to
boycott a writers’ conference in Israel that she had signed up to
appear at next month. (Thus spake Haaretz, no it’s not in the American press.) Looks like she’ll boycott.

On Thursday, Ambassador Gillerman bragged
about all the artists and writers Israel sends out into the world. He
spoke of a book fair that Israel had lately sponsored, in Europe as I
remember. Israel was also a sponsor of the Telluride Film Festival,
which I attended last summer. This is an important part of Israel’s outreach. Sponsoring the arts
gives Israel a good name in elite circles, deflecting pressure from the
very community you would expect to lead opposition to apartheid
conditions in the West Bank.

Two British Jews urging Gordimer to stay home talk about the Nakba. Good for them, Nakba consciousness on the rise. They write, "The whole of Palestinian civil society has called for a cultural boycott of Israel." Gordimer opposed apartheid in South
Africa. Sure hope she doesn’t go.

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