Gaza vote divides Society of Authors after call to condemn Israeli military action

Extraordinary general meeting of the UK writers' union narrowly voted against making an official protest at violence that has killed at least 95 journalists and media workers'

The Society of Authors (SoA) has come under fire from all sides after members voted against a resolution demanding it issue an official statement condemning Israel's military action in Gaza.

The campaign group Fossil Free Books (FFB) submitted two motions to the SoA, the UK's largest trade union for writers, illustrators and translators, triggering an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Thursday night. Members voted 1,480 to 251 in favour of the first, which called for the publishing industry to divest from ties with the fossil fuels industry. Calls for the book industry to break ties with investment firm Baillie Gifford, which sponsors the UK's most prestigious nonfiction prize and a number of literary festivals, began after Greta Thunberg pulled out of her scheduled appearance at the Edinburgh international book festival last year. Since then, FFB was formed, and a number of authors have continued to speak out against Baillie Gifford, which has a proportion of its investments in corporations that profit from fossil fuels.