Boycotting the Santo Domingo Book Fair challenges the alliance between the Dominican government & Israeli apartheid

The Dominican Republic, a small Caribbean country of almost 50,000 square kilometres and 10.7 million people, located in the eastern part of the island it shares with Haiti, is the scene of a political battle at the centre of which is the alliance between its government and the Israeli apartheid regime.

More than 250 intellectuals, writers and activists from 28 countries have signed a declaration calling for a boycott of the International Book Fair of Santo Domingo, to be held from 24 August 24 to 3 September, with the State of Israel as guest of honour.

Signatories include Angela Davis, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé and Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi, Dominican writers Elizabeth Acevedo and Julia Alvarez, and academic Lorgia García Peña. Puerto Rican writer Mayra Santos Febres and Dominican writer Angie Cruz, who were among the special guests of the literary event, cancelled their participation and added their signatures to the statement.

"Resistance to the Dominican government’s relationship with Israel is building, and it became more visible in the call for the boycott of the book fair."

The Dominican Ministry of Culture responded by downplaying the importance of the boycott on one hand, while on the other the local press has quoted sources linked to the ministry as saying there will be a strong presence of Israeli security forces at the fair to prevent any hint of protest.

The strength of the boycott campaign seems to have taken the authorities by surprise. The Minister of Culture, Milagros German, has tried to justify the homage to Israel by pointing to a “historical friendship” between the two states. However, critics have pointed out that Israel was an arms supplier to the Trujillo and Balaguer dictatorships, which spanned almost half of the 20th century, during which thousands of Dominicans were murdered, tortured and exiled. Additionally, in 2020 and 2021 the Dominican government spied on a local journalist using the Israeli-made Pegasus spyware, as documented by Amnesty International.

A symptom of wider political problems

The call for people not to participate in the fair not only rejects the dedication to Israeli apartheid, but also denounces the racist and homophobic censorship exercised by the authorities in the 2022 edition of the event. Furthermore, it opposes the anti-democratic atmosphere in the country, reflected in the legalisation of a party that openly vindicates the military dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, who ruled the country between 1930 and 1961.

The public statement also mention the appointment to the Academy of History of a military officer with a long record of human rights violations, including executions and forced disappearances of political dissidents, Ramiro Matos, and repudiate a "framework of racist violence, persecution, massive deportations and abuses of power" against the Haitian immigrant community, citing as an example the arrest of Haitian writer Jhak Valcourt.

In fact, the straw that broke the camel's back and strengthened the call to boycott the book fair came following Valcourt being arrested despite having legal residence and being a recognised figure in the country’s cultural sphere. This took place against a backdrop of rising anti-migrant rhetoric and practices by the state, including the expulsion of unaccompanied children.

The fair has also faced other problems as a result of government infighting. For example, vice-minister Pastor de Moya in charge of the fair was abruptly removed from his responsibilities at the beginning of August, press reports pointing to conflicts between him and the minister, as well as with the Director general of Books and Reading, Angela Hernández. And, the event was postponed twice by authorities without any convincing explanation. Public questioning of the contracting mechanisms for a musical theatre play that would cost the government more than $727,000 is reported to have led to its cancellation.

Additionally, Funglode, a publishing house linked to an opposition party claimed that its participation in the event was cancelled and that the authorities were charging more than a whopping $3,600 for the rental of a space to sell books – a substantial increase from rates charged in previous years. After public denunciation, the publishers eventually reached an agreement with the ministry to make their participation possible.

Past failures

It is perhaps unsurprising that the Dominican government feels confident in honouring Israel through the fair. When in 2020, the Dominican Foreign Minister announced that he would consider moving the country's embassy to Jerusalem, there was only criticism from some leftist organisations. President Luis Abinader justified his foreign policy orientation under the notion that there is a "new cold war" in place and that the Dominican Republic must place itself in the US camp, against China.

The announcement in May 2022 that the guest of honour in the 2023 Book Fair would be Israel also did not raise much controversy either. Just days later, the Israeli apartheid regime assassinated Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

This year, an agreement with the Israeli company Mekorot, to design a water management plan for the country, was announced. Furthermore, last month the Abinader administration gave the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sanchez and Mella, in the degree of Grand Cross Silver Plate, to the outgoing Israeli ambassador.

But the winds are changing. At the end of July the Socio-Environmental Network of the Dominican Republic, which includes several environmental organisations, denounced the illegality of the contract with Mekorot and warned it sought to accelerate the privatisation of water distribution.

Indeed, resistance to the Dominican government’s relationship with Israel is building, and it became more visible in the call for the boycott of the book fair. Even an international figure who has ratified her participation in the event, Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli, has found it necessary to publicly disassociate her attendance from any support for the State of Israel.

Whilst the boycott campaign may not succeed in ending the alliance between the governments of the Dominican Republic and Israel altogether, or in preventing the homage to Zionist apartheid at the Santo Domingo International Book Fair, it has already changed the tone of the internal cultural political debate in the country. Breaking with decades of fear and state censorship, Dominican writers and artists are daring to say: not in our name.

Simón Rodríguez Porras is a Venezuelan Socialist and writer. He is the author of "Why did Chavismo fail?" and editor at Venezuelanvoices.org.

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