Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Author Of ‘Sapiens’ Won’t Participate In LA Event Put On By Israeli Consulate

(JTA) — Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, author of the best-selling book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” is refusing to participate in an event in Los Angeles sponsored by the Israeli Consulate in protest of several recently passed laws in Israel, including the nation-state and surrogacy laws.

Harari is scheduled to participate in a Live Talks LA program, similar to TED Talks, in mid-September. The Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles contacted the organizers of the event in order to co-host a reception before talk.

“Even though he is proud of his Israeliness, he is not interested in collaborating with the consulate, which is the long arm of Israeli government policy that limits freedom of press, expression, creativity and thought,” a representative of Harari reportedly told the consulate, the Israeli daily Yediot Acharonot reported Monday.

A consulate representative told Yediot that she responded to Harari that Israel’s Foreign Ministry is not a political body, does not set policy and represents all citizens of the State of Israel,  and that it does not limit the artistic expression of the artists it supports around the world.

“Even so, we prefer not to represent the government so long as it persists with these policies,” Harari’s representative reportedly responded.

Harari also objects to the amended surrogacy law, which excludes gay couples. Gay couples also cannot marry in Israel, though marriages taking place outside of Israel can be registered with the Interior Ministry.

“Sapiens,” which was originally published in Hebrew as a textbook for Harari’s students at Hebrew University, has sold 8 million copies worldwide in 30 languages since its publication in 2011.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.