Dozens of writers have quit an international literary festival over the event’s failure to urge an end to the Israeli regime’s ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.
In a fiery letter that was released on Wednesday, and cited in a report by The Daily Beast American news website on Friday, Naomi Klein, Michelle Alexander, and others withdrew their participation in the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature.
The event that is held annually in New York City and Los Angeles, has been honoring international writers since its establishment in 2004.
“Israel has killed, and at times deliberately targeted and assassinated journalists, poets, novelists, and writers of all kinds,” read the letter.
It was referring to the developments that have taken place since October 7, when the regime began the war in response to a retaliatory operation staged by Gaza’s resistance movements.
More than 31,500 Palestinians, mostly women, children, and adolescents, have died in the military onslaught so far.
‘Cultural genocide’
The letter added that the targeting of cultural institutions, like universities and libraries, — that have happened during the war — amounted to a kind of “cultural genocide.”
According to the writers, the festival’s failure to call for a ceasefire in the war amounted to a “betrayal” of its values.
“This failure is particularly striking in light of the extraordinary toll this catastrophe has taken in the cultural sphere.”
Among the writers who have died in Gaza are the Palestinian poet and scholar Refaat Alareer, who was killed with several family members in a targeted Israeli airstrike in December; and the entire family of the Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh.
As of March 15, the non-profit Committee to Protect Journalists counts at least 95 journalists and media workers killed in Gaza throughout the war.
