PEN America president’s resignation marks latest anti-Zionist uproar in literature

Dinaw Mengestu quits free-expression group over article that highlighted post-October 7 prejudice against Jewish and Israeli writers and expressed opposition to cultural boycotts

Posted by Geoffrey Clarfield

It appears that PEN supports free speech and the First Amendment for everyone, except Jews and Israelis. In Germany in the 1930s the infamous Nuremberg laws did much the same.

This is Luke Tress writing in The Times of Israel

NEW YORK — Last week, the free speech group PEN America published an article describing the “cultural isolation” surrounding Jewish and Israeli authors.

One writer said she had been told to strip Jewish references from her romance novel; a children’s author who wrote about a child bringing matzah to life was accused of “supporting genocide”; and other writers were targeted in coordinated “review bombing” and harassment campaigns online. A literary agent for Israeli writers said she hasn’t sold a book by an Israeli since the October 2023 Hamas attack. The article did not include a call to action, political prescriptions or support for Israeli policies.

The president of PEN America, novelist Dinaw Mengestu, resigned to protest his own organization’s article about Jewish and Israeli victimhood because the article opposed cultural boycotts. Mengestu argued that opposition to the boycott movement, and not the anti-Israel boycott movement itself, was discriminatory.

In a statement, he assailed PEN America for its “ongoing failure to defend free expression fairly.” He argued that the group was harming pro-Palestinian free speech by defending free expression for Israelis and Jews.

PEN America’s stated goals are to “champion the freedom to write” and “protect free expression.” Mengestu’s resignation stood out because opposing boycotts of a national group, and discrimination against writers, would seem to be clearly in the organization’s mandate.

The PEN America article, titled “A Silent Moratorium,” followed a series of reports on anti-Zionism and alleged prejudice in the publishing industry in recent years.

A 2024 online list targeted “Zionist” authors for blacklisting; Jewish authors have been ostracized; hundreds of authors pledged to boycott Israeli cultural institutions; and a Brooklyn bookshop canceled a book launch with the leftist Jewish author Joshua Leifer because the event moderator was a “Zionist.”

The turmoil also rocked PEN America, which canceled its 2024 award ceremony due to protests over its handling of the Gaza war. Some writers accused the group of “Zionist propaganda” and “platforming Zionists.” President Suzanne Nossel stepped down in 2024 amid the protests.

An activist group called Writers Against the War in Gaza celebrated Nossel’s resignation, calling her a “Zionist and imperial stooge.”

“Zionism will not be tolerated in our literary worlds,” the group said.

PEN is by no means “pro-Israel” — last year, the group put out a lengthy report, called “All That is Lost,” on the “cultural destruction of Gaza.” Last week’s article cited “experts” calling the Gaza war a “genocide.”

Mengestu stepped into the turmoil to become PEN’s president in December, vowing to “mend and rebuild.” Just seven months later, he quit due to PEN’s article describing “blatant hostility, discrimination, and hate that some Jewish and Israeli authors are facing, and the impact on their freedom of expression.”

In a section on boycotts, last week’s article said, “Writers must be able to speak and write freely.” In a separate statement, PEN said the organization itself was opposed to boycotts, but defended the rights of others to boycott.

Mengestu disagreed, telling The New York Times that the approach was “unethical.” . . . “I am not boycotting PEN America. Like many other writers who have reached out to me, I am walking away from it permanently.”

The PEN article also crossed another line by appearing to sympathize with Israelis or “Zionists.”

The proscription on recognizing suffering on the “Zionist” side was apparent immediately after October 7, when activists in cities around the US ripped down posters showing Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

In some other examples, Amnesty International struggled to release a report about the atrocities against Israelis during the October 7 attack for more than two years due to internal opposition. When The New York Times published an investigation of Palestinian sexual violence against Israelis, staffers in the newsroom revolted.

Writers Against the War in Gaza hailed Mengestu’s resignation, and doubled down on its exclusionary approach.

“Normalization of Zionism will never again be tolerated by the literary community,” the group said on Saturday. “There can be no freedom to write without a free Palestine.”

Read it all here.