Following the news that some 1,000 writers and publishers are pledging to boycott Israeli cultural institutions, the daughter, Fania Oz-Salzberger, of celebrated Israeli writer and peace activist, Amos Oz, says that her father would have been “sad, disgusted, but proud” to be among those included in the ban. 

“And ban him they would,” the eldest daughter of the late literary figure, Mrs. Oz-Salzberger, wrote on X. “Not because he didn’t care for the Palestinians, of course he did, but because he’d be the first to tell these virtue signallers that they are historically and politically ignorant.” Mrs. Oz-Salzberger is a noted historian. 

Last week, Sally Rooney, Rachel Kushner, and a thousand other authors signed a petition to not work with Israeli publishers, festivals, literary agencies, and publications that they identify as “complicit in violating Palestinian rights,” including “whitewashing and justifying Israel’s occupation, apartheid, or genocide.”

Citing the war in Gaza as the “the most profound moral, political and cultural crisis of the 21st century,” the signatories charge that they “cannot in good conscience engage with Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to apartheid and displacement.” 

Oz, who died in 2018 of cancer, was one of Israel’s most highly respected intellectuals, having published over 40 books, including novels, essays, and short stories, that were translated into more than 45 languages. 

He was also known for his liberal politics and for being an ardent advocate of a two-state solution. He did so long before it became mainstream. When in 1978 Israel’s peace negotiations with Egypt seemed to be on the brink of collapse, Oz helped establish a left-wing advocacy group called Peace Now, which petitioned the government to push for an agreement. The organization still exists and is known to be the longest standing Israeli movement advocating for a two state solution. 

Though often a fierce critic of Israel, Oz’s love for his country captured the admiration of conservatives, including Prime Minister Netanyahu who, after the news of Oz’s death, described him as “one of the greatest authors” to come out of Israel, and added that he “deftly and emotionally expressed important aspects of the Israeli experience.”

Others, in addition to Mrs. Oz-Salzberger, have expressed their disapproval of the sweeping petition. An independent association of lawyers, UK Lawyers for Israel, issued a letter to the Publishers Association, denouncing the signatories for making “false allegations against Israel” and engaging in “a discriminatory and illegal boycott.” 

The coalition of lawyers offered several examples of the petition’s authors basing their boycott on “false allegations” including their reference to casualty figures reported by the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza — “whose data has been shown to be fabricated and manipulated.” 

The group also pointed out that the authors’ description of the war in Gaza as “the most profound moral, political and cultural crisis of the 21st century” fails to recognize “genocide in Sudan, ethnocide in Xinjiang, cannibalism in Congo, extermination in Ethiopia, mass murder in Nigeria and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, amongst other terrible crimes around the world.” 

They concluded their statement by inviting the Publishers Association “to alert its members to the legal and reputational risks of participating in, assisting or supporting the discriminatory boycott proposed by the authors of the Letter” as well as “ to avoid any endorsement of the Letter.”