The UK novelist Ian McEwan has told a group of pro-Palestinian activists who criticized him for accepting the Jerusalem Prize for promoting the freedom of the individual in society to “stay away” and respect his decision. The novelist, who was awarded the 2011 Jerusalem Prize last week, said he disagreed with those who called on him to reject the award. In a letter to the newspaper ‘The Guardian’, McEwan wrote: “I'm for finding out for myself, and for dialogue, engagement, and looking for ways in which literature, especially fiction, with its impulse to enter other minds, can reach across political divides.”

He added: “There are ways in which art can have a longer reach than politics. If your organization is against this particular project, then clearly we have nothing more to say to each other." Pointing out that in the past prize winners included Bertrand Russell and Simone de Beauvoir, he added: “I hope you will have the humility to accept that these writers had at least as much concern for freedom and human dignity as you do yourselves. Your 'line' is not the only one. Courtesy obliges you to respect my decision, as I would yours to stay away."

Earlier, the group British Writers in Support of Palestine, whose members include prominent Israel critics, had accused McEwan of being party to “a cruel joke and a propaganda tool for the Israeli state”. They called on him to reject the prize – Israel’s most significant literary honor for foreign writers – and instead join them in a boycott of Israel. McEwan was also been criticized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign for accepting it.