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By Jarrad Saffren
(SEPTEMBER 12, 2023 / PHILADELPHIA JEWISH EXPONENT) The Palestine Writes Festival is “the only North American literature festival dedicated to celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists,” according to palestinewrites.org. And a quick perusal of the speaker list will show that most of these writers and artists are dedicated to doing just that.
There is little mention of modern-day Israel on most of these pages. But then you get to someone like Roger Waters, the former lead singer of Pink Floyd and a loud critic of Israel, and you see that this event has another side to it.
“Waters is an active supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement since 2011, and has routinely called for a total cultural boycott in Israel,” the site reads.
This is by design, according to Susan Abulhawa, the festival’s executive director.
“We will go home someday. No matter how long it takes or what it takes, there is nothing that will put out this fire and love for our stolen homes and heritage,” Abulhawa said.
The festival will take place on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus from Sept. 22-24. Four departments within the school’s Arts & Sciences program are among the sponsors. Certain events will happen in a building next to Houston Hall, where Jewish students will be observing Yom Kippur on Sept. 24, according to Penn Hillel.
The Zionist Organization of America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Israel, is trying to shut the festival down.
“When you have a conference where speakers include (Temple University professor) Marc Lamont Hill, who opposes Israel’s very existence, and Roger Waters, who falsely condemns Israel as a genocidal apartheid state, it makes it clear that this is a vicious, antisemitic, Israel-bashing event,” said Morton Klein, the national president of ZOA and a Merion Station resident. “And Penn should be ashamed for having it.”
Klein believes that the festival could make “people feel more negatively about Jews on campus,” he said. He is certain that it will make Jewish students uncomfortable wearing a yarmulke or Jewish star necklace.
“More Jews will hide their Jewishness because of this event,” Klein concluded.
That’s why his organization has written to Penn’s president, M. Elizabeth Magill, and the chairperson of Penn’s board of trustees, Scott L. Bok. ZOA is also having its lawyers investigate a possible lawsuit that would argue that Penn violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in any activity or program that receives federal funds or financial assistance.
“They are violating U.S. law,” he said.
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