PEN Americathe literary organization dedicated to defending freedom of expression around the world, has a question mark over its future in the face of growing pressure from pro-Palestinian activists: in the last week, it has been forced to cancel two of its major annual programs and its continuity is in question.
PEN America canceled its World Voices festival, founded by Salman Rushdie twenty years ago, due to the boycott of several guest writers due to the organization’s response to the war in Gaza. It happened after last Monday PEN America also announced the cancellation of its annual awards after the majority of writers nominated for them decided to give up the awards.
The gap between the writers and the organization is what the authors consider a lukewarm reaction to the war in Gaza. PEN America has made clear its demand for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages and has gone so far as to describe the Israeli military operation as “abominable.” But that is not enough for activists.
In the letter in which several of them resigned from participating in the annual awards, they criticized that PEN America refuse to talk about “genocide” on the Israeli military operation in the Strip, accuses him of “implicit support for Israel”, of “promoting Zionists” and of being “complicit in the normalization of genocide.”
In reality, the episode is one more battle in the gap between activism and the maintenance of essential pillars in liberal democracy that affects Western cultural institutions, especially in the United States. Here the gap is in what PEN should be. America: for writers, their vision of their work must be prioritized social justice causes above the essential mission of the organization, freedom of expression, the contrast of diverse ideas and dialogue.
moral abdication
For writers activists That position of neutrality is a moral abdication in the face of something much more important. In that letter, they question the right to disagreement that is central to PEN America’s mission. “Among writers of conscience, there is no disagreement,” said the signatories. «There are facts and fiction. And the fact is that Israel is carrying out a genocide of the people of Palestine.
That letter is especially harsh on the CEO of PEN America, Suzanne Nossel, who is Jewish, and who they accuse of being committed to “Zionism, Islamophobia and imperial wars in the Middle East.” The background of Nossel, who was director of Amnesty Internationall in the US, does not fit that description.
PEN America has assured that many writers have been pressed to follow the line of the activists and that some expressed “real fear” about disagreeing with them. The next big problem for the organization is just around the corner. Next May 8 it celebrates its annual gala, one of the moments in which it raises funds for its operations. What has happened in recent days suggests that the gala, like the future of the organization, is in danger.
