JK Rowling told to stop supporting "apartheid" and "stand on the right side of history" by Palestinian academics group

The group launched in the Palestinian city of Ramallah in April 2004 by a group of Palestinian academics and intellectuals, including journalist and sociologist Lisa Taraki and Omar Barghouti urge Rowling "not to undermine our resistance movement and... join the many world writers and artists who support the boycott."

The group wrote an open letter to the author from "occupied Palestine" after Rowling took to Twitter after a number of fans used her Harry Potter characters to argue in favour of a total cultural boycott of the nation.

She wrote: "The Palestinian community has suffered untold justice and brutality. I want to see the Israeli government held to account for that injustice and brutality.

"Boycotting Israel on every possible front has its allure. It satisfies the human urge to do something, anything, in the face of horrific human suffering."

In its letter to Rowling the group conclude: "At a minimum, we call on you not to lend your good name to be used in undermining our call for non-violent resistance."

Last week it emerged that Mia Oudeh, a music teacher from Dunfermline had crafted a Facebook post to Rowling, one of her favourite authors, calling her out over her support of the Guardian's Culture for Coexistence letter.

Ten Scotland-based academics are among more than 300 from British universities to announce a boycott of Israeli universities in protest at “the intolerable human rights violations” inflicted on the Palestinian people by Israel.

PACBI is a member of The Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Campaign National Committee (BNC), a global, Palestinian-led human rights movement that aims to apply pressure on Israel, as was done on apartheid South Africa, to fully comply with its obligations under international law.

They broke their silence over Rowling's stance after she said: "What sits uncomfortably with me is that severing contacts with Israel's cultural and academic community means refusing to engage with some of the Israelis who are most pro-Palestinian, and most critical of Israel's government.

"Those are voices I'd like to hear amplified, not silenced."

@BDS4Justice This is why. We may not agree after you've read it, but you deserve a proper answer. https://t.co/HaMFL2ufw4

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 26, 2015

She concluded: "A cultural boycott places immovable barriers between artists and academics who want to talk to each other, understand each other and work side-by-side for peace."

Rowling said fans had used her characters to make points about the boycott. She said some readers pointed out that "talking" did not stop the Wizarding war in the novels and drew parallels between that and the conflict in the Middle East.

But Rowling said: "It was true in the Potter books, and it is true in life, that talking will not change wilfully closed minds."

The PACBI response is headlined: "An open letter to J.K. Rowling from occupied Palestine: Don't lend your name to Apartheid."

It reads: "We were disappointed to see your name on the 'Israel needs cultural bridges, not boycotts' letter published in the Guardian last week. We are also perplexed by the timing of this call, signed by many Israel apologists as Israel has killed over 65¬ Palestinians (of whom 13 are children) and injured 7200 since the start of October alone. We wish to clarify some points pertaining to your comments on the cultural boycott of Israel.

"Much like you, Ms. Rowling, we are dreamers too. Despite the suffocating walls that besiege us, restrict our freedom and our daily movement to and from our schools and workplaces, and between our towns and villages, we dare to imagine what should be possible: liberation from oppression and a day when we are treated as equal human beings. Our boycott campaign, backed by overwhelming support from people of conscience all over the world, is turning this dream into a reality.

"To start, we are a collective of Palestinian intellectuals, artists and academics who initiated the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) in 2004.

"Following our initiative, an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society called for an all-encompassing BDS campaign based on the principles of human rights, justice, freedom and equality in 2005 Since its initiation, the BDS movement has adopted a nonviolent, morally consistent strategy to hold Israel accountable to the same human rights and international law standards other states must adhere to.

"More specifically, Palestinians have called for a full boycott of Israel until our three basic rights are met: Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

"The BDS National Committee, in which PACBI is a member, rejects censorship and upholds the universal right to freedom of expression and subscribes to the internationally accepted definition of freedom of expression as stipulated in the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

"PACBI’s Cultural Boycott Guidelines reject, on principle, boycotts of individuals based on their identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, or religion) or opinion, and does not boycott Israeli individuals – cultural workers, academics or otherwise. BDS does not entail, as you say, 'severing contact with Israel’s cultural and academic community' nor 'refusing to engage with some of the Israelis who are…most critical of Israel’s government,' quite the contrary.

"The Palestinian call for BDS is inspired by the South African struggle against apartheid, where people of conscience in the international community shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice using diverse forms of boycott.

"Like the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, our aim is to bring direct pressure to bear on our oppressor. More than twenty years of 'constructive engagement' projects in Palestine have led to nothing but further entrenchment of Israel's colonization and progressive denial of Palestinian rights.

These projects provide a false symmetry between the oppressor and oppressed, which only serves to empower the oppressor, and contribute to perpetuating and normalizing oppression. In addition, they have often played into the hands of persistent Israeli official propaganda, especially its well oiled, but so-far futile, 'Brand Israel' campaign which serves to mask Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.

"There is no contradiction between boycotting complicit Israeli institutions and calling for serious, rational and ethical dialogue based on respect for the rights of Palestinians. BDS in fact promotes debate and even dialogue, but one that is based on respect for Palestinian rights under international law.

"As Archbishop Desmond Tutu has repeatedly said, 'those who turn a blind eye to injustice actually perpetuate injustice'. Tutu is joined in endorsing the boycott by a list of distinguished artists, writers and public intellectuals, including the late Stéphane Hessel, Holocaust survivor and co-author of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, John Berger, Arundhati Roy, Judith Butler, Naomi Klein, Ken Loach, Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Mira Nair, Roger Waters, Snoop Dogg, Jean Luc Godard, Elvis Costello, Gil Scott Heron, Carlos Santana, Faithless, Zakir Hussain, Mike Leigh and many many others. Just this year, one thousand British cultural figures, a list of who’s who in film, literature and performing arts, signed a pledge to boycott Israel until it respects its obligations under international law.

"J.K. Rowling, we appeal to you to stand on the right side of history by affirming our three basic rights mentioned above, and supporting the boycott. We urge you not to undermine our resistance movement and to join the many world writers and artists who support the boycott. At a minimum, we call on you not to lend your good name to be used in undermining our call for nonviolent resistance.

"Sincerely, The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)"