The Giller Foundation ended its relationship with its main sponsor Scotiabank on Monday, following a prolonged pressure campaign by anti-Israel activists, who are still calling for the organization to drop additional sponsors.

The foundation did not say why it was ending its partnership with Scotiabank, which helped grow its prestigious literary prize to $100,000, but anti-Israel protesters have taken issue with the bank’s investment in Elbit Systems, an Israeli manufacturer of drone systems and other defence technologies.

“We are indebted to Scotiabank for their exceptional commitment over the past two decades,” Giller Foundation executive director Elana Rabinovitch told National Post in a written statement. “As the Giller Foundation embarks on the next stage of its journey, it remains committed to celebrating and promoting Canadian literature.”

When asked to speak in greater detail on Tuesday, Rabinovitch told the Post, “I won’t be making any further comments.”

Scotiabank told other media that the bank has no comment.

Some fiction writers denounced the Giller Foundation’s decision as a capitulation that will further embolden intolerant activists. “Dear @GillerPrize please stop lurching leftward to try and accommodate the ideologically captured, censorious, illiberal literary-activists. Nothing makes them stop, you will never be pure enough. Every sponsor is suspect. They are destroying the Canadian arts. Stand up to them,” fiction writer Hal Niedzviecki wrote on X following the news.