More than 1,800 writers and publishers have signed an open letter in support of the pro-Palestine protesters who disrupted the ceremony of a prestigious Canadian literary award last week.
Among the signatories is Canadian author Sarah Bernstein, the winner of the C$100,000 (£58,000) Scotiabank Giller prize.
The Giller prize event was first interrupted when protesters jumped onstage with signs that read “Scotiabank funds genocide”, while another protester shouted that Scotiabank “currently has a $500m [£398.7m] stake in Elbit Systems” and that “Elbit Systems is supplying the Israeli military’s genocide against the Palestinian people”.
The event was interrupted a second time when the winner’s announcement was being made. As Bernstein’s name was called, a protester posing as a photographer began shouting, so the organisers repeated the announcement.
The letter states that protesters were booed by the audience, forcibly removed, detained by police for three hours after the event ended and are now facing charges, which it says should be dropped.
Bernstein said she “was only made aware what had happened at the Giller ceremony after the event”, which she attended via a one-way video link. “I support the right to protest, and I hope the charges against the protesters will be dropped,” she added. “I’m proud to join fellow Canadian writers in also calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.” She won the prize for her novel Study for Obedience, which is also shortlisted for this year’s Booker prize, announced on Sunday.
“We ask all of our literary institutions to be loud where our governments and news outlets have been silent,” reads the letter. “To call for a ceasefire; to express condemnation for the collective punishment of Palestinians and the war crimes being enacted by the Israeli government; to exert pressure on the Canadian government to stop its military funding to, and diplomatic support for, the Israeli government; to call for a release of all hostages: Israeli hostages and the 5,000 Palestinian civilians (including 170 children) who are illegally incarcerated in Israeli prisons; and to urge Israel to end the 75-year occupation of Palestine.”
Along with Bernstein, other signatories include Noor Naga, co-winner of this year’s Arab American book award for her novel If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English. “Activists do not disrupt peace; they disrupt the silence of complicity,” Naga wrote in a post on X. “They do not disrupt order; they identify the disorder. We owe these activists our awareness, our aliveness. They did what we celebrate literature for doing: wake us up”.
Elbit Systems is an Israel-based arms manufacturer that has long been criticised by activists for supplying the Israeli military. In April, American investigative news outlet the Intercept reported that Scotiabank’s stake in the company was estimated to be $500m, making it the largest foreign shareholder.
