If you’re a publisher, writer, or work in any part of the publishing industry, you likely know that the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBM) is the largest publishing industry event in the world. FBM is also deeply complicit in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, crimes of occupation, apartheid, and genocide that have been recognized as such by the world’s top courts and human rights organizations.
As Israel’s hideous extermination campaign continues, the need for humanity to stop the genocide remains incredibly urgent. The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement has endorsed the Publishers for Palestine call to BOYCOTT the world’s largest publishing event, the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBM), due to its deep complicity in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians and its support for Israel’s illegal occupation and the brutal apartheid conditions that Palestinians continue to face daily.
The Frankfurt Book Fair has openly proclaimed its support for Israel, has engaged in normalization in its programming, has cancelled the award ceremony for Palestinian author Adania Shibli, congratulated and welcomed Anne Applebaum—an author who made hateful statements celebrating the bombing of Palestinian media outlets—and it maintains close relationships with the culpable German government and multibillion-dollar publishing multinationals with massive investments in Israeli tech, AI, and surveillance, as well as ties with complicit Israeli publishers and the Jerusalem Book Forum. More on Frankfurt’s complicity here and here.
We know that BDS is one of the most important tools we have to stand up for Palestinian rights and liberation, and to fight back against repression. Just a few months ago, well over 7,000 writers and book workers in the US, UK, France, South Korea, Canada, and elsewhere, stepped up in a historic commitment to boycott complicit Israeli publishers in an important stand against genocide.
Such overwhelming support for BDS demonstrates that book workers, writers, librarians, and publishers are an integral part of the cultural boycott against Israel’s regime of genocide, illegal occupation, and apartheid.
We call on writers, publishers, and all book and library workers (whether or not you usually attend or support the Frankfurt Book Fair) to amplify the call for boycott and declare your commitment to #boycottFrankfurt #boycottFBM. Please encourage your colleagues and friends who work in publishing, libraries, archives, and educational institutions to do the same.
We know that together, from our positions within a global information industry, we can mainstream the Frankfurt boycott and play a role in helping to bring about Palestinian liberation.
Please amplify this call to boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair far and wide, and use the tools below and the hashtags #boycottFrankfurt #boycottFBM #FBM2025
You can download instagram tiles and a printable flyer here detailing some of the central reasons behind the boycott.
This impacts everyone. The globe is currently at elevated risk of another world war, and the movement for Palestinian liberation is of crucial importance due to its centrality in issues of human rights, environmental justice, and world peace.
By supporting and amplifying the call to boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair on social media, websites, and in email blasts, by handing the flyer out at events and posting it to your bookstore walls, and by talking about the FBM boycott at events and in personal conversations—you are helping to advance the central movement of our time.
Publishers for Palestine 