Nobel laureate JM Coetzee has declined an invitation to attend the Jerusalem International Writers Festival, scheduled for May 25–28, in a strongly worded letter condemning Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The South African writer, who previously considered himself a supporter of Israel, addressed the letter to festival artistic director Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler in November. The correspondence, first reported by The Guardian, has since drawn widespread attention across the literary world.

In the letter, Coetzee wrote that Israel has been conducting what he called a “genocidal campaign in Gaza that has been vastly disproportionate to the murderous provocation of 7 October 2023,” adding that the campaign appeared to have had the enthusiastic support of the vast majority of Israel’s population, and that for this reason no considerable sector of Israeli society, including its intellectual and arts community, could claim it should not share in the blame for the atrocities in Gaza.

The refusal carries particular symbolic weight given Coetzee’s personal history with the festival. He travelled to Jerusalem in 1987 to receive the Jerusalem Prize, an award recognising writers whose work explores freedom in society. At the time, he used his acceptance speech to denounce apartheid South Africa, warning that oppressive political systems inevitably deform cultural and intellectual life. Now, nearly four decades later, Coetzee wrote that “the campaign of annihilation in Gaza has changed all that,” noting that long-time supporters of Israel had turned away in revulsion, and that it would take many years for Israel to clear its name and re-establish itself in the international community.

Fermentto-Tzaisler described Coetzee’s response as “especially harsh” and said she was “shocked.” In a reported reply, she appealed to his anti-apartheid legacy, writing: “As a South African writer who fought apartheid, I would have expected — or perhaps dreamed — that you would extend a hand to me.” Eight other international writers, including Erri De Luca and Dara Horn, remain on the festival programme.

Coetzee’s stand joins a growing wave of cultural boycotts. Canadian author Naomi Klein pulled out of the 2024 PEN World Voices Festival to protest PEN America’s response to the Israel-Gaza war, while film figures including Olivia Colman, Ken Loach, and Tilda Swinton have signed a pledge vowing to decline work with Israeli film institutions. The National Writers’ Association of South Africa has also expressed full support for Coetzee’s decision, calling it a principled act of conscience that reflects a long-standing literary and ethical tradition in which writers do not separate their work from the realities of power, injustice, and human suffering.