Books Against Genocide explain how Western publishers play a key role in funding the Zionist project. As workers they are organising to force companies to stop.
Perspectives
Books Against Genocide
19 Nov, 2024
THE NEW ARAB
While well over 40,000 Palestinians have been martyred, publishing has perpetuated a propagandised Zionist narrative, write Books Against Genocide. [GETTY]
“The effort to become a great novelist simply involves attempting to tell as much of the truth as one can bear, and then a little more.” —James Baldwin
The American book industry sees itself as the keeper of this truth, as the arbiter of literature, as the necessary gatekeeper of a sanctified canon. Yet time and again, it doubles down on the status quo and props up the powerful, championing not the voices of the many but the interests of a few.
Never before has the true nature of US publishing been so apparent as during the past year of the Zionist entity’s genocidal bombardment of Gaza. Western literature and publishing are instrumental to the colonisation of Palestine, from their foundational role in the inception of Zionist ideology to present-day investments in “Israeli” technology.
Behind the scenes at most major publishing houses (which, it’s important to note, are subsidiaries of multinational media empires like NewsCorp and Paramount), the climate is hostile to anyone with a conscience. Official company statements following October 7 condemned the Al-Aqsa Flood, relegating Hamas, the armed resistance and elected government of Gaza, to “terrorists,” and offering no acknowledgment of the Zionist entity’s illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
NewsCorp, Paramount (parent companies of HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster respectively at the time), and Penguin Random House pledged significant contributions to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation, an organization that from October 2023 to December 2023, donated $64.2 million to illegal settlers of "Israel" and $0 to the people of Palestine.
Macmillan’s CEO, Jon Yaged, did not even have the decency to name Palestine in his email to the company, instead opting for “the Middle East.” And well before October 7, Holtzbrinck and Bertelsmann (German parent companies of Macmillan and Penguin Random House respectively) were embracing their Nazi roots by investing millions in “Israeli” tech, AI, surveillance, and security technologies.
While well over 40,000 Palestinians have been martyred, publishing has perpetuated a propagandised Zionist narrative, publishing titles trafficking in myths of mass-rape like Black Saturday by Trey Yingst, and defence of settler colonialism like On Settler Colonialism by Adam Kirsch.
In the last year, a junior Big Five employee was laid off less than two weeks after speaking out against a planned Zionist book. Other acts of individual defiance by authors, booksellers, and beyond are also met with retaliation, while publishing industry DEI taskforces facilitate “antisemitism education" trainings, a manipulative deflection under the guise of “equity” with collaborators such as Project Shema, a proxy to the racist Anti-Defamation League whose founder denies the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
In response to industry complicity, a movement of book workers arose to insist on literature’s power to liberate, including Books Against Genocide (BAG), a collective of Big Five publishing professionals demanding our companies end all relationships with the Zionist project, along with writer-led coalitions like Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG) and KidLit4Ceasefire – the latter two having called on Joe Biden to declare a permanent and unconditional ceasefire and demanded their industry colleagues uphold the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott (PACBI).
WAWOG has since organised sustained boycotts against both PEN America and the New York Times. Just last month, 500 international publishers demanded that the Frankfurt Book Fair cut ties with “Israel.”
Related
Palestinian liberation does not need Western approval
Perspectives
Mjriam Abu Samra
The publishing establishment is no match for this new movement, which has targeted one shamelessly hypocritical group within the vast Zionist ecosystem of mainstream publishing: alleged “free-speech” advocacy organization PEN America. PEN America claims to stand “at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression worldwide” but refused to call for a ceasefire or address the systematic assassinations of writers and journalists in Gaza.
After Israeli Occupation Forces unlawfully arrested Palestinian freedom fighter and author Ahed Tamimi, PEN America released (and then redacted) an egregiously insensitive statement calling on her family to “investigate” the antisemitic post that was fabricated to justify said arrest, and they forcibly removed Palestinian American author Randa Jarrar from protesting a PEN event with Zionist actor Mayim Bialik.
More than 1,300 prominent writers across genres denounced PEN America's performative “humanitarian” charade with an open letter. Twenty-one writers nominated for various PEN awards withdrew from consideration. This sustained pressure led to the cancellation of the PEN World Voices Festival and the PEN Jean Stein award, redirecting the latter’s $75,000 prize money to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
Ultimately, one cannot deny literature’s inextricable link to modern revolutionary movements, which is why the Zionist entity kills Palestinian poets and writers with the same strikes as it does Palestinian resistance fighters. And now, these various efforts in publishing are beginning to coalesce, broadening the monetary and ideological divestment from Israel to not only ensure Zionism’s obsolescence in publishing, but also to project a new vision for the industry’s future: a unified community of authors, literary agents, publishing workers, booksellers, librarians, and readers bound by their commitment to justice and powerful enough to unseat the existing status quo.
Books Against Genocide is a coalition and campaign of book workers pressuring US "Big 5" trade book publishers to end their relationships with the Zionist project called "Israel."
Palestinian liberation does not need Western approval
Perspectives
Mjriam Abu Samra
The publishing establishment is no match for this new movement, which has targeted one shamelessly hypocritical group within the vast Zionist ecosystem of mainstream publishing: alleged “free-speech” advocacy organization PEN America. PEN America claims to stand “at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression worldwide” but refused to call for a ceasefire or address the systematic assassinations of writers and journalists in Gaza.
After Israeli Occupation Forces unlawfully arrested Palestinian freedom fighter and author Ahed Tamimi, PEN America released (and then redacted) an egregiously insensitive statement calling on her family to “investigate” the antisemitic post that was fabricated to justify said arrest, and they forcibly removed Palestinian American author Randa Jarrar from protesting a PEN event with Zionist actor Mayim Bialik.
More than 1,300 prominent writers across genres denounced PEN America's performative “humanitarian” charade with an open letter. Twenty-one writers nominated for various PEN awards withdrew from consideration. This sustained pressure led to the cancellation of the PEN World Voices Festival and the PEN Jean Stein award, redirecting the latter’s $75,000 prize money to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
Ultimately, one cannot deny literature’s inextricable link to modern revolutionary movements, which is why the Zionist entity kills Palestinian poets and writers with the same strikes as it does Palestinian resistance fighters. And now, these various efforts in publishing are beginning to coalesce, broadening the monetary and ideological divestment from Israel to not only ensure Zionism’s obsolescence in publishing, but also to project a new vision for the industry’s future: a unified community of authors, literary agents, publishing workers, booksellers, librarians, and readers bound by their commitment to justice and powerful enough to unseat the existing status quo.
Books Against Genocide is a coalition and campaign of book workers pressuring US "Big 5" trade book publishers to end their relationships with the Zionist project called "Israel."
JCB's literature prize sponsors violence from India to Palestine
British construction company JCB's literature prize masks its ongoing role in genocide from India to Palestine and Kashmir, says Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya.
Voices
Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya
21 Nov, 2024
THE NEW ARAB
The JCB prize for literature is an indicator not only of the ever-presence of corporates in India’s cultural world, but also of ongoing British imperialism under Modi’s fascist government, writes Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya [photo credit: Getty Images]
On November 23, the winner of India’s JCB Prize for Literature is set to be announced.
The prize — an award of 2,500,000 rupees (almost $30,000) — is overseen by British construction company JCB and its eponymous literature foundation.
However, JCB has also played a disturbing role in carrying out the Hindu supremacist (or Hindutva) agenda of India’s central government, led by Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Ahead of the announcement, an open letter on the literature prize has been signed by 120 high-profile authors across India, the UK and globally. The letter condemns the ‘hypocrisy’ of the prize in failing to acknowledge the widespread use of JCB equipment in the destruction of Muslim homes and places of worship. The demolitions have also targeted Dalits and other oppressed communities.
This so-called ‘bulldozer justice’ taking place in Modi’s India is a clear step towards ethnic cleansing, in line with the openly stated aim of government ministers to make the country a Hindu state, with some even calling for the genocide of the Muslim population.
Related
Narendra Modi is fashioning India in his own, despotic image
Perspectives
Ashok Swain
As the open letter states, JCB is likewise fuelling Israel’s continued attempts at ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through ongoing settlement expansion in the West Bank, even as the genocidal war on Gaza continues.
Amnesty International found large-scale evidence of the repeated use of JCB bulldozers and backhoe loaders in demolitions of Palestinian homes, due to contracts between JCB’s dealer, Comasco Ltd, and the Israeli Ministry of Defence.
Meanwhile, in Indian-occupied Kashmir - the world’s most heavily militarised region - JCB machines have consistently been used in house demolitions during large scale evictions, despite many residents providing proof of ownership. This is just one aspect of a broader regime of human rights violations of the Kashmiri people by the Indian state, particularly since 2019, when the limited autonomy of the state of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked by the Indian government.
The open letter forms part of the wider campaign "JCB: Stop Bulldozer Genocide", which demands that JCB must end its relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defence and cease all activities in occupied Palestine.
In terms of India, the campaign demands that JCB commit to ensuring that its products are not used for human rights violations in India and Kashmir through robust monitoring and prevention systems. This includes making compulsory the use of its existing LiveLink technology to trace and locate JCB machines.
JCB's dirty record
JCB is deeply intertwined with corruption amongst the wealthy UK establishment. Its chairman Anthony Bamford has close ties with the UK Conservative Party and particularly with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, having even hosted Johnson’s wedding in 2022 — making up part of the complex web of connections between the UK and India’s respective far right regimes.
The JCB empire is owned by Bamford and controlled by the Bamford family trusts, which have been involved in offshore tax scandals.
The empire is also a major donor to the Conservative Party, to which it gave £300,000 in 2024 alone. Furthermore, this month the former Conservative Party energy minister, Claire Coutinho, faced claims of conflict of interest after it was found she had accepted donations from Lord Bamford whilst overseeing the awarding of millions to JCB businesses in green grants - a classic example of government and corporate greenwashing.
The website for the literature prize mentions JCB’s desire to "communicate to readers everywhere the full diversity of India’s literature" a sentiment directly contradicted by the company’s role in destroying the homes of marginalised communities on behalf of Hindutva forces.
Mita Kapur, director of the literature prize, told Scroll.in that the books on the longlist for the prize represent "a diverse array of Indian fiction", echoing the prize’s emphasis on diversity. Notably, however, the candidates shortlisted for the prize are nearly all Hindu, and four out of five are men, despite the prize being overseen by a team of women.
The blurb of one book on the longlist, Of Mothers and Other Perishables by Radhika Oberoi, includes an apparently climactic point in the text when "protestors swarm the streets, hollering against a new bill that persecutes the Muslim community".
This is seemingly a reference to the real mass resistance to the Citizenship Amendment Act and accompanying laws, which were first introduced by Modi’s government in late 2019 and attempt to disenfranchise India’s Muslims. Tellingly, Oberoi’s novel has not made it to the JCB prize shortlist.
The letter comes as many writers across the globe have distanced themselves from Israel in recent weeks and signed letters pledging to boycott Israeli cultural institutions.
The JCB prize for literature, however, is particularly insidious, since the company’s role in destruction of lives and livelihoods - and fuelling ethnic cleansing in India, Palestine and Kashmir - remains relatively little known.
Despite the reliance of Indian literature on corporate sponsorship - as a result of a broad lack of arts funding - this is not the first time Indian authors have targeted a literary initiative with unethical corporate connections. For example, the Jaipur literary festival was widely boycotted in 2016 on account of its sponsorship by Vedanta, a mining company responsible for the widespread displacement of indigenous communities.
Indian author Asad Zaidi, a signatory of the open letter, said: "[JCB] machines have come to symbolise displacement and destruction in contemporary India. Unsurprisingly, JCB has been trying to charm and lure the cultural intelligentsia, including writers and translators, into its image-building exercise as a protector and promoter of high cultural values. Its literary and translation prizes are part of this charade."
Another signatory, Dalit poet Cynthia Stephens said:
"Heavy earthmoving equipment is like a knife. It can be used to build infrastructure for human comfort, but in recent years has been more used to destroy the lives of the poor and marginalised. We condemn such hypocrisy on the part of the company and those administering the prize."
Whilst India’s Supreme Court ruled against ‘bulldozer justice’ just over a week ago, declaring that authorities cannot demolish someone’s home merely because they have been accused of a crime, it is unclear whether this will be implemented in practice and popular opposition remains crucial.
Challenging the literature prize is fundamental to the ongoing campaign against bulldozer genocide.
Related
India port workers' anti-colonial solidarity strike for Gaza
Perspectives
Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya
Through the literature prize, JCB is attempting to maintain its image as a source of both cultural and economic prosperity in India.
The website for the prize emphasises the company’s role in creating jobs for Indian workers, citing JCB’s "substantial and longstanding involvement in the country’s social and economic life". This involvement, in fact, includes the destruction of the livelihoods of some of India’s most marginalised people.
The JCB prize for literature is an indicator not only of the ever-presence of corporates — including those complicit in genocide — in India’s cultural world, but also of ongoing British imperialism under Modi’s fascist government.
As author Siddhartha Deb put it: "If the JCB Prize is intended to support Indian writing, that means Indian writing is complicit in British racism, Hindu fundamentalism, and Zionist ethnic cleansing."
Alongside the global boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, it is more urgent than ever to connect the dots and condemn the JCB prize in solidarity with those facing demolition and displacement — both in Palestine under Israeli occupation and in India and Kashmir amidst the steady rise of Hindutva fascism.
Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya is a writer, activist and editor. She is interested in arts and culture and social movements.
Follow her on X: @AnanyaWilson
Have questions or comments? Email us at: editorial-english@newarab.com
Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff, or the author's employer.
British construction company JCB's literature prize masks its ongoing role in genocide from India to Palestine and Kashmir, says Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya.
Voices
Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya
21 Nov, 2024
THE NEW ARAB
The JCB prize for literature is an indicator not only of the ever-presence of corporates in India’s cultural world, but also of ongoing British imperialism under Modi’s fascist government, writes Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya [photo credit: Getty Images]
On November 23, the winner of India’s JCB Prize for Literature is set to be announced.
The prize — an award of 2,500,000 rupees (almost $30,000) — is overseen by British construction company JCB and its eponymous literature foundation.
However, JCB has also played a disturbing role in carrying out the Hindu supremacist (or Hindutva) agenda of India’s central government, led by Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Ahead of the announcement, an open letter on the literature prize has been signed by 120 high-profile authors across India, the UK and globally. The letter condemns the ‘hypocrisy’ of the prize in failing to acknowledge the widespread use of JCB equipment in the destruction of Muslim homes and places of worship. The demolitions have also targeted Dalits and other oppressed communities.
This so-called ‘bulldozer justice’ taking place in Modi’s India is a clear step towards ethnic cleansing, in line with the openly stated aim of government ministers to make the country a Hindu state, with some even calling for the genocide of the Muslim population.
Related
Narendra Modi is fashioning India in his own, despotic image
Perspectives
Ashok Swain
As the open letter states, JCB is likewise fuelling Israel’s continued attempts at ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through ongoing settlement expansion in the West Bank, even as the genocidal war on Gaza continues.
Amnesty International found large-scale evidence of the repeated use of JCB bulldozers and backhoe loaders in demolitions of Palestinian homes, due to contracts between JCB’s dealer, Comasco Ltd, and the Israeli Ministry of Defence.
Meanwhile, in Indian-occupied Kashmir - the world’s most heavily militarised region - JCB machines have consistently been used in house demolitions during large scale evictions, despite many residents providing proof of ownership. This is just one aspect of a broader regime of human rights violations of the Kashmiri people by the Indian state, particularly since 2019, when the limited autonomy of the state of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked by the Indian government.
The open letter forms part of the wider campaign "JCB: Stop Bulldozer Genocide", which demands that JCB must end its relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defence and cease all activities in occupied Palestine.
In terms of India, the campaign demands that JCB commit to ensuring that its products are not used for human rights violations in India and Kashmir through robust monitoring and prevention systems. This includes making compulsory the use of its existing LiveLink technology to trace and locate JCB machines.
JCB's dirty record
JCB is deeply intertwined with corruption amongst the wealthy UK establishment. Its chairman Anthony Bamford has close ties with the UK Conservative Party and particularly with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, having even hosted Johnson’s wedding in 2022 — making up part of the complex web of connections between the UK and India’s respective far right regimes.
The JCB empire is owned by Bamford and controlled by the Bamford family trusts, which have been involved in offshore tax scandals.
The empire is also a major donor to the Conservative Party, to which it gave £300,000 in 2024 alone. Furthermore, this month the former Conservative Party energy minister, Claire Coutinho, faced claims of conflict of interest after it was found she had accepted donations from Lord Bamford whilst overseeing the awarding of millions to JCB businesses in green grants - a classic example of government and corporate greenwashing.
The website for the literature prize mentions JCB’s desire to "communicate to readers everywhere the full diversity of India’s literature" a sentiment directly contradicted by the company’s role in destroying the homes of marginalised communities on behalf of Hindutva forces.
Mita Kapur, director of the literature prize, told Scroll.in that the books on the longlist for the prize represent "a diverse array of Indian fiction", echoing the prize’s emphasis on diversity. Notably, however, the candidates shortlisted for the prize are nearly all Hindu, and four out of five are men, despite the prize being overseen by a team of women.
The blurb of one book on the longlist, Of Mothers and Other Perishables by Radhika Oberoi, includes an apparently climactic point in the text when "protestors swarm the streets, hollering against a new bill that persecutes the Muslim community".
This is seemingly a reference to the real mass resistance to the Citizenship Amendment Act and accompanying laws, which were first introduced by Modi’s government in late 2019 and attempt to disenfranchise India’s Muslims. Tellingly, Oberoi’s novel has not made it to the JCB prize shortlist.
The letter comes as many writers across the globe have distanced themselves from Israel in recent weeks and signed letters pledging to boycott Israeli cultural institutions.
The JCB prize for literature, however, is particularly insidious, since the company’s role in destruction of lives and livelihoods - and fuelling ethnic cleansing in India, Palestine and Kashmir - remains relatively little known.
Despite the reliance of Indian literature on corporate sponsorship - as a result of a broad lack of arts funding - this is not the first time Indian authors have targeted a literary initiative with unethical corporate connections. For example, the Jaipur literary festival was widely boycotted in 2016 on account of its sponsorship by Vedanta, a mining company responsible for the widespread displacement of indigenous communities.
Indian author Asad Zaidi, a signatory of the open letter, said: "[JCB] machines have come to symbolise displacement and destruction in contemporary India. Unsurprisingly, JCB has been trying to charm and lure the cultural intelligentsia, including writers and translators, into its image-building exercise as a protector and promoter of high cultural values. Its literary and translation prizes are part of this charade."
Another signatory, Dalit poet Cynthia Stephens said:
"Heavy earthmoving equipment is like a knife. It can be used to build infrastructure for human comfort, but in recent years has been more used to destroy the lives of the poor and marginalised. We condemn such hypocrisy on the part of the company and those administering the prize."
Whilst India’s Supreme Court ruled against ‘bulldozer justice’ just over a week ago, declaring that authorities cannot demolish someone’s home merely because they have been accused of a crime, it is unclear whether this will be implemented in practice and popular opposition remains crucial.
Challenging the literature prize is fundamental to the ongoing campaign against bulldozer genocide.
Related
India port workers' anti-colonial solidarity strike for Gaza
Perspectives
Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya
Through the literature prize, JCB is attempting to maintain its image as a source of both cultural and economic prosperity in India.
The website for the prize emphasises the company’s role in creating jobs for Indian workers, citing JCB’s "substantial and longstanding involvement in the country’s social and economic life". This involvement, in fact, includes the destruction of the livelihoods of some of India’s most marginalised people.
The JCB prize for literature is an indicator not only of the ever-presence of corporates — including those complicit in genocide — in India’s cultural world, but also of ongoing British imperialism under Modi’s fascist government.
As author Siddhartha Deb put it: "If the JCB Prize is intended to support Indian writing, that means Indian writing is complicit in British racism, Hindu fundamentalism, and Zionist ethnic cleansing."
Alongside the global boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, it is more urgent than ever to connect the dots and condemn the JCB prize in solidarity with those facing demolition and displacement — both in Palestine under Israeli occupation and in India and Kashmir amidst the steady rise of Hindutva fascism.
Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya is a writer, activist and editor. She is interested in arts and culture and social movements.
Follow her on X: @AnanyaWilson
Have questions or comments? Email us at: editorial-english@newarab.com
Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff, or the author's employer.
