Palestine Legal to UPenn: Palestine Writes Literature Festival must be allowed to proceed without racist censorship

CONTACT: Danya Zituni, Palestine Legal | media@palestinelegal.org | (312) 547-0766

September 18, Philadelphia, PA - On Friday, Palestine Legal wrote the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) urging the university to stand up for freedom of expression and permit the Palestine Writes Literature Festival to go forward, despite calls from Israel lobby groups to cancel the festival. Palestine Legal’s letter notes that the university would be in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should it take action against the festival, which features dozens of Palestinian writers and other luminaries from across the world, including Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen, National Book Foundation ‘5 under 35’ awardee Isabella Hammad, Peabody awardee Laila Al-Arian, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and Marc Lamont Hill, named by Ebony as one of the 100 most influential Black leaders in the country.

The letter explains how calls from Israel lobby groups including the ADL, Penn Hillel and the Zionist Organization of America to cancel, monitor and/or surveil the festival based on bigoted beliefs that the presence of Palestinian students and literary figures will create a hostile or dangerous environment for Jewish students “has no basis in law or fact.” 

Since 2014, Palestine Legal has responded to over 2200 incidents of suppression of Palestinian rights advocacy, many involving harassment and censorship attempts by university administrations and right-wing organizations aimed at intimidating Palestinians and their supporters into silence and inaction.

“All of us, including dozens of Penn students, have worked for over a year for this festival to take place on campus so that they could celebrate and learn about their literary traditions and culture,” said bestselling novelist and executive director of Palestine Writes, Susan Abulhawa. “Yet Penn has not spared a single word of support or care towards these students who are being targeted on the basis of their Palestinian identity. Penn has the opportunity to host the only Palestinian literature festival in North America and celebrate diverse academic spaces that allow students to engage critically. Canceling, limiting or curtailing this festival would send a message that only certain students are worth protecting, and it would certainly play into harmful stereotypes about Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students.”

In addition to featuring some of the most prominent literary voices in the Arab world, the festival will also feature local indigenous leaders of the Delaware Nation and Lenni Lenape peoples and celebrated feminist and biographer Rachel Holmes, according to a letter sent by Palestine Writes to Penn in response to calls for surveillance. The event features activities for children, including storytime hour with Palestinian children’s book authors, craft stations and activities and workshops on how to create comics.

“Penn can’t discriminate against Palestinians and supporters of Palestinian rights just because Israel apologists don’t want them on campus,” said senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath. “They’re trying to do here what Israel is doing to Palestinians on the ground, and the law simply does not allow for it.”