Filipino Writers and Publishers React to the Call to Boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025
The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: Frankfurter Buchmesse) is regarded as the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the sheer number of publishing companies exhibiting in the annual event. The upcoming 77th edition, happening from October 15 to 19, is probably the Philippines' biggest participation as it was designated the official Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse (FBM) 2025.
Being a Guest of Honour (GOH) means having a special exhibition hall and literary program set up for the guest country. The Philippines, led by officials from the National Book Development Board (NBDB) signed its official GOH contract at a ceremony in Davao back in August 2023, with FBM represented by its director, Juergen Boos. This is only the second time that a Southeast Asian country became a GOH, with the first being Indonesia in 2015.
"Our goal is to really be visible and to showcase the best of our arts and culture and books. It’s not just (about) a commodity. That’s why I like the term ‘book trade.’ When you trade, it’s not just monetary, creative content. It's a cultural exchange every time you get a book," Karina Bolasco, who once ran Anvil Publishing for more than two decades and is the former director of the Ateneo de Manila University Press, said in a March 2025 interview with Esquire Philippines.
But Frankfurt Book Fair, much more the Philippines' participation as GOH, is not without controversy.
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Call to Boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair
Publishers for Palestine, a global collective of nearly 600 publishers in 50 countries, calls for an industry-wide boycott of FBM.
"The Publishers for Palestine call for boycott comes after the Fair has failed to address its ties to the German state and corporate partnership in Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and programming that ignores Israel’s regime of occupation and apartheid. The Fair has also celebrated the awarding of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade to American journalist Anne Applebaum, and hosted the author—who has publicly praised Israel’s illegal bombing of Palestinian media outlets as part of its journocide—during the Fair’s 2024 edition," they said in an official statement released on January 30, 2025.
The organization added that an open letter addressed to FBM on September 24, 2024, remained unacknowledged. The prior statement demanded the fair to "denounce Israel’s targeting of Gaza’s writers, students, schools, universities, libraries, archives, and book publishers in its ongoing genocide."
In their call for a boycott, Publishers for Palestine made four basic demands from the Frankfurt Book Fair:
- condemn Israel’s regime of genocide and apartheid in Gaza and affirm the human rights of the Palestinian people;
- refuse collaboration with complicit Israeli book publishers, including by barring their participation in the Frankfurt Book Fair;
- denounce the attacks on Palestinian writers, journalists, and academics—and acknowledge that such attacks are part of a genocidal project seeking to erase Palestinian life and culture;
- and create programming that prominently features Palestinian writers, publishers, and narratives.
Publishers for Palestine also cited the Fair's "deep ethical inconsistencies" in their statement, including: "a 2023 pledge to increase Israeli programming, in stark contrast with its 2022 ban of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. FBM’s well-documented ties to complicit Israeli corporations and institutions and its entanglement with the German state include relationships with German multibillion-dollar publishing multinationals Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA., each of which holds multimillion-dollar investment portfolios in Israeli tech, AI, surveillance, and security technologies. Holtzbrinck also hosts the Frankfurt Book Fair’s Jerusalem International Book Forum Breakfast, a long-standing annual event."
The group is also inviting publishers around the world "who stand for justice, freedom of expression, and the power of the written word" to affirm and sign the Statement for Solidarity, first published on November 3, 2023.
"We honour the courage, creativity, and resistance of Palestinians, their profound love of their historic lands, and their refusal to be erased, or grow silent, despite Israel’s horrific genocidal acts of violence. Against the chilling complicity of Western media and cultural industries, we find hope sparked by the surge of bodies and voices that continue to gather, write, speak, sing, combat falsehoods, and build community and solidarity across social media and on our streets, across the world," the statement reads.
As of April 15, 2025, eight independent presses from the Philippines have signed the Statement of Solidarity: Gantala Press, Everything’s Fine, Isang Balangay Media Productions (Balangay Books), Lomboy Press, Kwago Publishing Lab, Alfredo F. Tadiar Library, Aklat Alamid, and Paper Trail Projects.
The Philippine booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2019.
Statements by Publishers and Authors from the Philippines
Publishers and authors from the Philippines have long recognized the nuances surrounding the Frankfurt Book Fair. Sometime in 2024, many were sent out invitations to be part of the Philippine delegation.
Kristine Ong Muslim, writer of poetry and fiction, shared in a public post (May 30, 2024) her letter of invitation:
"I'm showing you this, young Filipino authors, so you can see that you always have a choice and you can make the right choice at the right time. And that moral and ethical choice has a price, it can come with losing a career-rewarding opportunity or something you personally desire.
On one hand, you can choose the easy profitable careerist route, spend Filipino taxpayers money to go to Frankfurt, support a racist institution that enables the genocide of Palestinians, people you believe to be less than human--but of course you won't admit that publicly.
Or, say no now, grow a spine, show humanity and international solidarity and support the boycott, lose a little of the fleeting things you have convinced yourself are important. Maybe they're not that important after all."
Jumper Cable Chronicles: Si Santa Anita author EK Gonzales has likewise pulled out from the catalog for FBM and shared in a post on May 19:
"I am cognizant of the support of the event directly for Israel and its government's and people's g/enocidal intent and attacks against Palestine. I am cognizant of its withholding support in several forms against Palestine.
By this time practically all hospitals and most health provisions in particularly G/aza has been eliminated. No food and supplies have been allowed into the region for 75 days and counting, besides earlier tight restrictions. What is likely more true is 100,000 and far more are now dead from active attacks by weapons and passive attacks by withholding food, shelter, and healthcare. More than 200 journalists have been killed, the biggest number since they started counting. This is the livestreamed g/enocide and we are not acting fast enough.
The support for Palestine is the stance of both myself and translator Xi Zuq. I realize that this is the one thing I can do, no matter how small, besides active personal brands boycott and personal information sharing.
If Haya, Dino, and Anita get noticed beyond our country, it must be in the right ways. If it happens, I will be grateful if it is in the right principled ways."
A statement by Komikeros For Palestine is also being circulated to uphold the global call to boycott the book fair.
"We, concerned komikeros, call on both the local komiks community and the broader Philippine publishing community to boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair, in line with the global Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The BDS movement aims to exert international pressure on Israel, through economic, diplomatic, cultural, and other means, as part of the broader movement to win Palestinian national liberation and end the Israeli occupation of Palestine," they said. The komikero community is also asked to sign their statement.
Senator Loren Legarda, who is part of the Philippine Guest of Honour Committee, convened a dialogue with Filipino authors, publishers, and creatives on May 27, 2025, at the National Museum of Fine Arts. Position papers regarding the boycott were read (and shared online) by those who participated in the forum.
Here are some excerpts with full statements posted publicly by the concerned parties as well (in no particular order):
From Faye Cura, publisher of Gantala Press, which is a member of the Publishers for Palestine network: "I would like to take this opportunity to share exactly how the Frankfurt Book Fair is complicit in the genocide and why a Boycott is the best course of action for publishers. Data comes from a comprehensive report by Mondoweiss.
The Fair is deeply entangled with the German state, which is the second biggest supplier of weapons to Israel. Funding comes from the German government along with contracts and registrations from exhibitors and attendees. So by attending the complicit Fair and as its Guest of Honor, the Philippines has also contributed financial and cultural support to the genocide."
Cura explained that two of the "Big Five" publishing corporations, Macmillan Publishers and Penguin Random House, are owned by German multinationals Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and Bertelsmann SE & Co.L. Both of which have "millions of investments in Israeli tech, AI, surveillance, and security technologies."
The full statement is available on the Gantala Press website. Gantala, founded in 2015 in Metro Manila, is an "independent, non-profit, volunteer-run Filipina feminist press that centers women’s stories and issues in [their] projects (publications, small press fairs, discussions and workshops) and in [their] participation in people’s movements."
Karl Castro, artist and book designer: "The day that I received the invitation to this forum is the day that the Department of Foreign Affairs called for 'the full, safe, rapid, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance' to Palestinians in Gaza, reiterating the role and position of the United Nations in this crisis. Much was left unsaid in this short and very belated statement—no mention of genocide, no mention of who was doing the hindering, who was causing the humanitarian crisis in the first place. Yet it is the state of Israel which banned the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, calling it a terrorist organization and killing more than 300 of its staff. Last year, 124 of the UN’s 181 members voted to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. The Philippines voted in favor. Germany abstained. The United States, Israel’s top ally, voted against.
In the past two years, at least 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in this genocide, 70 percent of whom are women and children. To give you an idea of that scale, it is like killing half of the trade visitors to the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Clearly, there is a human rights crisis of a staggering scale, one that should make humanity stop in its tracks and reconsider its values and ways to move forward.
What should we make of the call to boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair?"
Castro emphasized that "framing this as a yes-or-no question may be too narrow." The legitimacy of both arguments, according to him, should be upheld. "This Honor is not just ceremonial; it comes with the burden of conscience." He reminded the GOH team that "Frankfurt is not the world. For every platform we enter, we must ask: who is not here? And how do we advocate for them—those whose voices are absent, but whose imaginations people the air?"
Ergoe Tinio, who is the Editor-in-Chief at CANVAS - Center for Art, New Ventures & Sustainable Development, clarified in her address to the FBF GOH team that her statement was her own and does not reflect the opinions of CANVAS. "I wish to speak from my perspective, not just as a writer and editor for children, but also as an activist and advocate for peasant rights."
"We are in a unique position as Guest of Honor to make our participation conditional on such a statement. In the current context and at this point in world history, a statement of concern may be the bare minimum expression of humanity, which the Frankfurt Book Fair still refuses to issue.
I anticipate that the GOH team will say their hands are tied because Frankfurt Book Fair officials will say that their hands are also tied, given the controversial laws in Germany about what is considered anti-Semitic expression.
But it begs to be said that while we figuratively talk of our hands being tied, there are hands in Palestine that are literally tied if they remain at all attached to a person, who may be alive but is most probably dead. The death toll stands at a conservative estimate of 60,000 with some counts pointing to double that number, where 80 percent are civilian casualties."
Tinio expressed doubts that, while the GOH team assured that delegates are 'free to express' their advocacies, their "right to express pro-Palestine sentiments will be respected and protected at FBM."
Her statement, which is also posted on Facebook with art cards, ended with a call to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine by "withdrawing support from all institutions that seek to deprive them of their rights as human beings and as a nation."
Adam David, co-founder of the small press expo Better Living Through Xeroxography, recalled that moment in 1985, when a group of writers, visual artists, musicians, and people from the performing arts published a statement of support for then-president Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. It also showed a list of promises made by the elder Marcos to our cultural institions to be fulfilled when he wins.
"I imagine they co-signed the declaration to politically safeguard the institutions they worked for and represented. Trabaho lang," David said in the statement he read during the forum with Legarda. The same endorsement draws a similar parallelism to the FBM issue.
"Today, lured with promises of prestige and financial reward – opportunities – in Frankfurt Book Messe, cultural workers once again find themselves walking past the Rubicon on their way to a crossroads (hopefully to Damascus - from the river to the Syrian city). The most resonant reasoning for choosing to cross the picket line this time is the potential loss of opportunities to tap a global audience of readers who are eager to discover the culture of lands they had formerly colonised or under the thralls of their neo-colonial project, where previous declarations of solidarity with Palestine are papered over with the words 'trabaho lang.'
There is no “trabaho lang” in cultural work. Culture is humanity’s way of talking to itself and talking about itself. For good or ill, cultural workers like us decide how we want our country and our people to be seen and understood and remembered by our fellow Filipinos and also by the world. There is no “trabaho lang” in the face of genocide."
Adam David's full statement is available on his Substack.
Ani Rosa Almario (Vice President of Adarna House), Karina Bolasco (Former Director of the Ateneo de Manila University Press), Kristian Cordero (Creative Director of Savage Mind), Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz (co-head of the GOH committee and former chair of NBDB), and Nida Ramirez (Founder of Avenida Books) affirmed the "right to dissent as fundamental in any democratic and just society" in their joint statement.
"We recognize the moral clarity and deep conviction behind the call. As a people with our own history of colonization, we cannot look away. We stand among the many voices condemning the ongoing assault on Palestinian life and liberty, and the entrenched structures of injustice that enable it.
At the same time, we affirm that the Philippines’ Guest of Honour participation in the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair, formally secured in August 2023, is an assertion of our identity and stories that define us. It is not an alignment with any foreign position, but a deliberate and independent decision to present the fullness of the Filipino narrative, one shaped by centuries of survival, resistance, and the pursuit of freedom. This is a moment of expression and truth-telling.
After all, literature for Filipinos has never been neutral. As Dr. José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere once ignited the first anti-colonial revolution in Southeast Asia, so too must literature today remain a force for truth, even and especially when truth is ignored.
Our presence at the Fair will not be detached from the world’s pain, but an engagement with it. In telling the Filipino story, we do not abandon others who are still fighting to tell theirs. The peaceful language of our craft can challenge, question, criticize, influence, and inspire. It has long been the language of awakening, and it is a language we will continue to speak.
We stand with complete solidarity on the side of humanity."
After the dialogue, Legarda released a statement, citing the fair's motto "The imagination peoples the air," which is drawn from Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere.
"I understand the call to boycott and respect the convictions behind it. I will never seek to silence it, nor offer a counter-argument. But walking away is not the only form of resistance. Sometimes, showing up--to speak, to challenge, to engage, to engage in critical discourse, and to insist on being heard--is the more difficult and consequential act. By taking our place and creating space for hard, necessary truths, we demonstrate what has long been our strength as Filipinos: the courage to confront injustice with moral clarity and resolve. We wield the peaceful language of our craft to affirm the principles we refuse to abandon, for ourselves and for others."
