83 Dutch authors distance themselves from private equity owner's Israeli investments
83 Dutch authors are firmly distancing themselves from “all Israeli investments” made by the American private equity firm KKR, which owns the Dutch publishing group VBK. They want their publishers to urge KKR “to divest its investments in the Israeli war industry,” the authors said in a statement, ANP reported.
After meeting with the authors on Monday, the Dutch publishing group VBK released a statement condemning “all human rights violations and war crimes.” VBK, which includes the publishers Alfabet, AMBO, Anthos, Atlas Contact, and Luitingh-Sijthoff, among others, became the property of KKR last year.
The authors are dissatisfied with this response from their publishers, calling it “an easy and cowardly platitude that may seem like a position, but is not.” The Dutch authors “unequivocally condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories,” they said. They would like their publishers to do the same.
The signatories of the statement published on Wednesday include Adriaan van Dis, Typhoon, Akwasi, Freek and Hella de Jonge, Sanne Vogel, Geert Mak, Tim Fransen, Johan Fretz, Nelleke Noordervliet, Simone van der Vlugt, and Daan Heerma van Vos. Earlier this week, several authors said that they were switching publishers due to KKR.
KKR is the owner of the international publisher Simon & Schuster (S&S), which acquired VBK last year. According to VBK, the acquisition deal included that the Dutch publishing group would remain fully independent, both operationally and financially. “In practice, this means that neither S&S nor its shareholder has any influence on the daily management or publishing policy of VBK,” the Dutch group said earlier this week.
But that does not absolve it from responsibility, several authors find. “The only thing I can say about it with the knowledge I have now is that I absolutely do not want my future literary work to contribute to the genocide that Israel is committing, no matter how minimally and indirectly,” Malou Holshuijsen told Follow the Money after announcing on Monday that she was leaving Ambo Anthos due to KKR.
The Dutch authors are following the example of Dutch artists, who started pulling out of festivals owned by KKR last month.
In addition to publishing houses and festivals, KKR also invests in defense companies that supply Israel, a large data center in Israel, and an Israeli website that advertises homes for sale in illegal settlements on the West Bank. KKR’s top management includes prominent members of Donald Trump’s Republican Party.
