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Palestinian journalists, writers unite: Boycotts in solidarity with Gaza
The call for a boycott was made on Wednesday in an open letter signed by more than two dozen Palestinian reporters, writers and multimedia journalists who are located both in Gaza and elsewhere, including Bisan Owda, Ali Jadallah, Hosam Salem, and Mohammed Zaanoun.
“As Palestinian journalists, we urgently appeal to you, our colleagues globally, with a demand for immediate and unwavering action against the Biden administration’s ongoing complicity in the systematic slaughter and persecution of journalists in Gaza,” they wrote. “We insist you publicly boycott the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 27 as an act of solidarity with us – your fellow journalists – as well as with the millions of Palestinians currently being starved in Gaza due to the Biden administration’s continued political, financial, and military backing of Israel and cut-off of funding for live-saving humanitarian aid”.
“For journalists to fraternize at an event with President Biden and Vice President Harris would be to normalize, sanitize, and whitewash the administration’s role in genocide,” they said.
In addition, thirty-one authors and translators have recently withdrawn their work from consideration for or declined PEN America’s 2024 literary awards over the organisation’s “failure to protect” Palestinian writers in Gaza.
While nearly 50 PEN centres signed PEN International’s call for a ceasefire in late October, PEN America did not join the call until 20 March, which many protesting writers considered too late.