Novelist JM Coetzee declines to attend Jerusalem writers festival over ‘genocidal campaign in Gaza’

Novelist JM Coetzee declines to attend Jerusalem writers festival over ‘genocidal campaign in Gaza’ Submitted by MEE staff on Thu, 05/07/2026 - 09:06 Nobel laureate warns former supporters of Israel are turning away from country over bloodshed in Gaza South African novelist JM Coetzee attends a ceremony where he was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa of the VUB Vrije Universiteit Brussel on 13 October, 2025 (AFP/Marius Burgelman) Off South African writer JM Coetzee has declined to attend a prominent Jerusalem literary festival over Israel's "genocidal campaign in Gaza . " The Nobel laureate, who said he previously considered himself a supporter of Israel, addressed a letter to the Jerusalem International Writers Festival artistic director, Julia Fermentto-Tzaisler, in November, as seen by the Guardian, in which he outlined his reasons for not attending the May event. “For the past two years the state of Israel has been conducting a genocidal campaign in Gaza that has been vastly disproportionate to the murderous provocation of 7 October 2023,” he wrote.