Boycotting Israeli Authors Is an Affront to Free Speech

[shira]

...Harris represents some of Israel’s most notable authors, including David Grossman and Meir Shalev. She also represented the single most popular book out of Israel in recent years, Yuval Harari’s Sapiens. Sapiens succeeded on a global scale, but it has not a word connecting it to Israeli culture or society. Apart from the author’s name, it could have been written anywhere.

Part of the painful irony in the boycott against Israeli authors is that the author’s political stance is irrelevant. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, a campaign to put pressure on Israel with the stated goal to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian lad, does not distinguish according to individual views.

For example,Grossman, whose leftist credentials are impeccable (and whose son died fighting against Hezbollah days after Grossman himself urged the government to accept a ceasefire), is forced to confront hostile audiences in Europe. Protesters question why he lives in Israel at all, no matter his views. Grossman has close relations with Palestinian writers and is a leading voice of the Israeli left. Yet that does not exempt him from the excoriation of the self-righteous. Grossman’s books are not only removed from shelves in the Arab world but even in such unlikely places as Glasgow, Scotland....

...It is dispiriting to find voices who otherwise support the freedom of expression speaking out to deny free expression to one country and one group of people. Despite constant existential pressure there is more freedom of expression in Israel than the majority of countries in the U.N. and more self-criticism than almost any other society on earth. “I have some promising young authors who are being denied a larger audience,” says Harris. “It is discouraging for them, of course, but I also feel the world is missing out.”

http://time.com/4385878/boycotting-israel-authors-free-speech/

The reason for BDS hostility towards all Israeli Jews is pure bigotry. To the antisemites, Israeli Jews are all the same - whether rightwing, centrist, or leftwing. All are considered "Zionists". Note that there isn't one instance of any boycott against an Israeli Arab. Only Jews. The BDS holes are just like Hamas in that regard as Hamas makes it clear they hate all Jews (Zionists). At least Hamas is more honest...