Critics in an uproar over speakers at this weekend’s Palestine Writes literature festival held at Penn

An uproar has ensued at the University of Pennsylvania over a writers conference scheduled there for this weekend that critics say includes speakers with a history of antisemitic remarks.

The Palestine Writes Literature Festival, billed as the largest Palestinian literature gathering in North America, is scheduled to begin late Friday afternoon and run through the weekend, ending just before the start of Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar.

Some Jewish groups locally and nationally have protested, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper, which has been covering the controversy extensively, saying it threatens the safety of Jewish students on campus and calling on Penn to distance itself from the event and exclude certain speakers.

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“We join Penn Jewish students in calling on the university and the departments involved with the event to acknowledge the pain this is causing Jewish students and to reassert the institutional values that are now at risk,” said a statement from the American Jewish Committee.

But Palestine Legal, a national organization that provides legal advice and litigation support to people who speak for Palestinian rights, defended the conference and criticized the basis for the outcry in a letter to the university.

“Claims from Israel lobby groups that an event featuring Palestinians, celebrating Palestinian culture, and/or supporting Palestinian rights will create a ‘hostile environment for Jewish students’ on campus have no basis in law or fact,” they wrote. “Rather, they are based on the bigoted notion that the open existence of Palestinians or expressions of their identity on campus is unsafe for Jews.”

Other Jewish groups spoke in support of the festival Monday, calling it an important opportunity to celebrate Palestinian voices and rights.

Among those scheduled to speak are Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd, whom the U.S. State Department said has “a long track record of using antisemitic tropes” and that a concert he gave in Germany in May “contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust,” according to the Associated Press. He is scheduled to appear by Zoom on a panel Friday night of non-Palestinians who have been supportive of Palestinian liberation.

Also scheduled to speak is former Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill, who faced a backlash in 2018 after he talked of “a free Palestine from the river to the sea” — a sentiment that some have used as a rallying cry for the destruction of Israel. He later apologized and said he rejects antisemitism.

Penn has not weighed in on requests to exclude certain speakers, but Penn leaders in a statement last week acknowledged concerns. The university is not a sponsor of the event, which was held for the first time in 2020 online because of COVID-19 and will be making its first in-person debut this weekend.

“While the Festival will feature more than 100 speakers, many have raised deep concerns about several speakers who have a documented and troubling history of engaging in antisemitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people. We unequivocally — and emphatically — condemn antisemitism as antithetical to our institutional values,” wrote Penn president Liz Magill, Provost John L. Jackson, Jr., and Steven J. Fluharty, dean of the School of Arts & Sciences.

But they also acknowledged the university’s commitment to free speech.

“As a university, we also fiercely support the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission,” they wrote. “This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.”

Palestinian and Arab student groups on campus and event organizers have defended the conference, calling it “an unprecedented cultural festival..., celebrating Palestinian literature and arts,” and been critical of the university’s statement. The event will include nearly 120 speakers from around the world to celebrate Palestinian culture, identity and community, they said.

“On a campus where Palestinian and Arab students must invest a significant amount of time and energy to create opportunities for their communities to be celebrated, an event like Palestine Writes is a long-awaited affirmation of their belonging and worth,” wrote the groups, Penn Against the Occupation, Almaydan — the Forum of Penn Arab Graduate Students, and Penn Arab Students Society.

They questioned the Penn leaders’ statement as “unprecedented” and said the university has not spoken out against “hateful and concerning views... espoused by campus visitors and even faculty in the past.

“The statement is a stinging reminder that when the university fails to provide accurate representation and impartial advocacy, it is up to us, the students, to take charge of our own narrative, ensuring no student feels unheard, invisible, or grossly misrepresented,” they wrote.

The concerns by Jewish groups come amid a national surge in antisemitic incidents on college campuses. In 2022, according to the Anti-Defamation League, incidents increased 41% from the previous year, according to USA Today.

Penn Hillel is planning “a massive Shabbat Together” event Friday night when the conference officially begins to celebrate “Jewish pride, unity, and togetherness” with prominent politicians and alumni expected to attend, said Rabbi Gabe Greenberg, Penn Hillel’s executive director.

“Penn Hillel has been working constantly to protect, advocate for, and fight on behalf of our Jewish students on campus,” the group said in a statement.

Penn Hillel has asked that the university remove all logos and support from the conference and exclude speakers with antisemitic history. It also has called on the university to pay for security for Jewish students on campus because of concerns about the event, create a staff position to support Jewish students on campus, and include antisemitism trainings on campus.

Penn public safety plans to monitor both events to ensure the safety of all parties.

Susan Abulhawa, award-winning novelist and organizer of the festival, was not surprised by the backlash to the event.

”Zionists launch into this hysteria anytime we appear with evidence of our indigeneity and their colonialism. This is what troubles them,” she said. “A settler-colonial movement needs to destroy the indigenous people in order to exist and in order to thrive. And the only way that that can be successful is if they completely obliterate the humanity of the indigenous people.”

She said event organizers reduced their Sunday programming to just the morning in order to accommodate Yom Kippur, which concludes 10 days of repentance that begin with Rosh Hashanah.

The Chavurah, a Jewish student group created two years ago for students who hold progressive and anti-Zionist viewpoints, spoke in support of the festival Monday, calling it an important opportunity to “celebrate and engage with a diversity of Palestinian voices.”

”We condemn Penn Hillel’s attempts to dismiss the entire festival and play up racist tropes about Palestinian advocates because of the inclusion of anti-Zionist speakers,” the group posted to their Instagram.

They continued that Penn Hillel’s “conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism” silences Palestinian voices and censures conversation about Palestinian liberation, and hurts Jewish communities because “it distorts any conversation about the incidents of real antisemitism that occur around us.”

Rabbi Linda Holtzman, a Philadelphia-based organizer of Tikkun Olam Chavurah and member of Jewish Voice for Peace, echoed the Chavurah group’s points and emphasized acknowledging the diversity of opinion that lies in Jewish communities.

Doing otherwise, she said, undermines who the Jewish community is “as people who believe in finding truth by exploring as broadly as possible.”

Holtzman added that it’s sad to see such automatic backlash to the “rich and beautiful array of Palestinian art and literature,” and that she’s glad the festival is happening — and believes Penn, as an educational institution, has an obligation to hold space for a wide range of viewpoints on campus.