Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) x Hajar Press
Hajar Press joins with many writers, publishers and bookshops internationally in signing on to the boycott by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
A founding member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement’s National Committee, PACBI was initiated in 2004, inspired by the cultural boycott campaign against apartheid South Africa. It is a call by Palestinian academics and culture workers on their colleagues across borders to boycott Israeli cultural institutions, unless they
1) end all complicity in the oppression of Palestinians, including complicity through whitewashing the Zionist entity and its occupation, apartheid and genocide of Palestinians; and
2) publicly endorse the comprehensive rights of the Palestinian people under international law, including the right of refugees to return.
In July 2024, The Lancet published an estimate that Israel’s ongoing genocidal offensive in Gaza has killed ‘up to 186000 or even more’ Palestinians. This number is likely much higher now. We commit to the PACBI boycott in recognition of the key role of Israel’s cultural sector and academic institutions in normalising and maintaining the genocidal Zionist project.
PACBI is aimed at institutions and does not target individuals. PACBI is committed to freedom of expression, as stipulated in the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and rejects, on principle, boycotts of individuals based on their opinion or identity (such as citizenship, race, gender or religion).
By formalising our alignment with this boycott, Hajar Press reiterates our firm and unequivocal solidarity with the Palestinian people and their resistance to settler-colonialism. We join thousands of cultural and literary workers and organisations around the world who are committed to the BDS movement in vehement support of the Palestinian liberation struggle.
For more information on PACBI, please see:
For a list of writers and institutions who have adopted the PACBI boycott, please see: