How Philadelphia Rallied Around Its Palestinian Literature Festival

Banah Khamis

Despite a defamatory attack on Palestine Writes Literature Festival by some Zionist American Jewish organizations, the sold-out event proceeded more or less as planned, minus a few glitches. An estimated 1,300 attendees converged at the University of Pennsylvania to celebrate Palestinian literature and Palestinian writers at the weekend long event held from September 22-24. And while 100 invited authors, film directors, actors, scholars, and organizers from all corners of the world, including Palestine and Philadelphia, spoke at the festival, some speakers were thwarted from attending in person.  

Attacks against the event began on August 16th when the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and the Philadelphia chapter of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sent a letter to University of Pennsylvania President M. Elizabeth Magill and other Penn administrators, accusing the festival of fomenting anti-Semitism on campus.

The Freedom Dabke Group performed at the opening ceremony. Photo: courtesy of Palestine Writes.

“We are troubled by the potential impact of this event, particularly concerning the well-being of Jewish students on campus,” wrote Jason Holtzman, director of the JCRC and Andrew Goretsky, the regional director of the ADL, in a joint letter to Magill. “There is a high likelihood that the festival will promote inflammatory and anti-Semitic narratives about Israel,” they stated, adding, “We are concerned that several speakers scheduled to participate in the festival have been embroiled in controversies involving anti-Semitic statements or actions.” The ADL and JCRC, two Jewish community organizations with records of supporting Israel, named speakers whom they deem problematic, including English musician and Pink Floyd co-founder, Roger Waters. Penn Hillel, a Jewish campus organization which aims to encourage students to deepen their engagement with Israel, also issued a statement echoing the JCRC/ADL letter.

“We categorically reject this cynical, sinister, and ahistorical conflation of bigotry with the moral repudiation of a foreign state’s criminality, particularly as most of us are victims of that state,” Palestine Writes executive director Susan Abulhawa responded to the ADL’s accusations in a letter to Magill. “It is distressing that the university blindly accepted this conflation without question or comment.”

Photo: courtesy of Palestine Writes.

By contrast with the ADL and JCRC, other Jewish groups expressed solidarity with Abulhawa and the festival. “The fear-mongering messages recently sent to the administration and alumni are the latest of Penn Hillel’s attempts to silence Palestinian voices on campus,” wrote Penn Chavurah, an independent progressive Jewish student-run group in a statement.   

Additionally, seven rabbis and multiple rabbinical students were among 200 Jewish community members who signed a petition in support of Palestine Writes. It was delivered to Magill.

“We are writing as Jewish members of Penn and broader Philadelphia communities to express our enthusiasm for the Palestine Writes Literature Festival,” the petition began. “Our colleagues who claim to speak for all of Penn’s Jews are simply expressing their own and their associates’ discomfort with the wide-ranging resistance that apartheid inevitably inspires.”

Statements of solidarity were also issued by Fossil Free Penn, Police Free Penn, Penn Against the Occupation, and Penn Arab Students Society. Thirty-six Penn faculty members also affirmed their support in a letter to the administration, which was published in the Daily Pennsylvanian. 

Despite the attacks against it, the festival proceeded, but some speakers were unable to attend in person as they had intended. Palestine solidarity activist and Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters joined the festival’s “The Costs, Rewards and Urgency of Friendship” panel over video conference. He told attendees that he initially planned to join over Zoom. But after learning about the accusations of anti-Semitism leveled against him, he decided to attend in person. 

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters & Guardian journalist Gary Younge joined “The Costs, Rewards and Urgency of Friendship” panel via video conference, while Vietnamese-American novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen (left) & author Rachel Holmes (right), joined in person. Photo: courtesy of Palestine Writes.

Waters told attendees that he was barred from Penn’s campus by university security. “I am Roger Waters and this is my heart, and it doesn’t have even the slightest flicker of anti-Semitism in it, anywhere,” he stated on Instagram. Waters’ co-panelist, Guardian journalist and British author Gary Younge, also faced challenges in attending the festival. Also joining the discussion over video conference, the United Kingdom-based Younge, told attendees that while he regularly travels to the U.S. and had planned to attend in person, he learned that his visa had been mysteriously revoked without cause on the day of his scheduled flight to Philadelphia.

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Born and raised in Amman, Jordan, Philadelphia-based Banah Khamis is a student, writer, and organizer of Palestinian origin. She is pursuing her B.A. in Global Studies, Political Science, and French at Drexel University. She worked in establishing the Philly Palestine Coalition and currently heads Drexel's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. She volunteered for Palestine Writes Literature Festival.