Posted on August 3, 2026
‘A Silent Moratorium’
Lisa Tolin, Geraldine Baum, Malka Margolies
July 9, 2026
Interviews with Israeli and Jewish writers who report facing rising isolation and exclusion.
Jerusalem-based literary agent Deborah Harris represents dozens of leading voices of Israeli literature, from established titans to debut authors of “literary gems.” Her agency typically sells five to 10 literary novels a year into the United States. Since Oct. 7, 2023, they have not sold a single one.
Harris told PEN America that editors with whom she has worked for years simply don’t respond to her submissions, or reject them outright. She has been asked by some editors not to submit Israeli authors in the future.
“The standard li
ne is, ‘I wouldn’t know how to publish this author right now,’” she said in an interview with PEN America. “Right now, we’re completely in this place where no one will even look. No one believes they can get a book that they love through an editorial meeting.”
In interviews with PEN America, more than 30 Israeli and Jewish writers and literary professionals described a widening cultural isolation since the attacks of Oct. 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza. Many spoke of rising hostility and exclusion both domestically and internationally that has taken a heavy and worsening toll.
The horrors of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks and the devastation of Israel’s war and what human rights organizations and experts have determined to be genocide in Gaza, have had catastrophic human costs. The political and cultural debates around the war have fractured communities and families and spurred conflict in institutions worldwide, from corporations and cultural organizations to campuses.
The war has also had serious repercussions for free expression globally, including in the United States, as PEN America has documented and spoken about extensively. Palestinian and pro-Palestinian writers, artists, and activists have faced dire consequences for their expression including arrests, harassment and threats, deportation attempts, and detention, in addition to cancellations and exclusion in the literary and cultural spheres; Israeli and Jewish writers and artists on all sides of the conflict have been silenced and faced a range of threats and repercussions.
In this piece, we share the stories of Jewish and Israeli writers who feel that the mainstream literary world is increasingly shutting them out because of their identity, nationality, or views. They describe an environment that has impacted their reputations and livelihoods, led people to self-censor, and created an overall chilling of their ability to write and create freely. This silencing and exclusion of writers is a threat to what PEN America is fundamentally committed to defending: a culture of free expression for all.
The Role of Cultural Boycotts
Calls to boycott Israeli cultural institutions have had an impact across the international literary and creative communities.
The movement for Palestinian civil rights and justice has long drawn on economic, cultural, and academic boycotts as tactics to pressure the Israeli government to change its policies and treatment of Palestinians. In fall 2024, more than 7,000 writers and literary professionals signed onto a pledge not to work with Israeli publishers, festivals, literary agencies, and publications “that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians,” arguing that “culture has played an integral role in normalizing” injustices by the Israeli government. The pledge specifically targets institutions, not individual writers, but many writers PEN America spoke to said they have felt repercussions, nonetheless.
PEN America upholds a long-standing position opposing any efforts to inhibit the free international exchange of literature, art, knowledge, or culture, including cultural and academic boycotts. We believe that such boycotts threaten the free expression rights not only of those associated with the boycotted institutions but also of those in the countries where the boycott is practiced. PEN America also recognizes that participating in or advocating for boycotts is an exercise of free expression, and we defend the rights of writers to do so without facing retaliation.
As an organization fundamentally dedicated to the power of literature and ideas to foster empathy and understanding, we believe that, particularly in times of conflict and division, writers must be able to speak and write freely. Readers, too, must be able to access a diversity of stories and perspectives. No matter the actions of governments, it is only through mutual engagement and understanding among people that we can lay the groundwork for a future of peace, dignity, and freedom for all.
Rising Isolation and Exclusion
Writers and others in the Israeli and Jewish literary community, in interviews with PEN America, reported event disinvitations and cancellations, and new and growing barriers to publication. They also recounted being harassed on social media, review-bombed on Goodreads, and subjected to online calls not to be read, platformed, or engaged with if they had ever shown support for Israel or Zionism. Some writers described being ignored by agents, publishers, literary journals, and magazines. Many requested anonymity to protect their safety and careers.
It is difficult to assess how much of what the writers PEN America spoke to are experiencing stems from cultural boycotts and broader efforts to protest the war; how much from anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, or antisemitic sentiment; and how much reflects matters of business or taste, which are also shaped by geopolitics.
But the writers’ accounts revealed the blatant hostility, discrimination, and hate that some Jewish and Israeli authors are facing, and the impact on their freedom of expression. Writers PEN America interviewed shared that they have been told by their agents to remove Jewish characters and references to Israel from their novels, or downplay Jewish identity because it won’t sell. They related stories of publicists having to be replaced because they refused to work with Israeli writers. “I do think that we have essentially been hounded out of literary life,” one author said.
One example writers cited of this hostility is a spreadsheet that circulated online in May 2024, titled “Is your fav author a zionist???” which included authors to be boycotted, based on whether they had expressed “Zionist” views and whether they had sufficiently criticized Israel. The list included a wide range of Israeli, Jewish, and non-Jewish writers. Authors were included on the list for a host of reasons, for example, based on a single Instagram post, attendance at literary events, posting “both sides” statements, objecting to boycotts, visiting Israel, or writing about an Israeli fictional character.
Two years ago, the Jewish Book Council opened a hotline for reporting “antisemitic literary-related incidents.” They define antisemitism as “prejudice against or hatred of Jewish people,” which “can take many forms, such as verbal or written language, in-person or online harassment, vandalism, and violence directed at a person or institution because they are Jewish.” The Council told PEN America they received about 350 self-reports by July 2026, including incidents related to boycotts, literary events, submission guidelines, cancellations, and social media.
I can tell you unequivocally, I am surrounded by writers who are telling me that (they are being fired by) their editor, their publisher, their agent, their publicist. Often they’re being dropped not because of any Israel stands or any Zionism. They’re being told it’s not the right time for a Jewish book.
READ MORE @ https://pen.org/a-silent-moratorium-interviews-with-israeli-and-jewish-writers/