The War Against Palestinians on Campus Keeps Getting More Absurd

The 2023 Palestine Writes Literature Festival took place as scheduled on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania late last month. The festival—which bills itself as “the only North American literature festival dedicated to celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists”—offers a valuable occasion to showcase work by and about Palestinians. It also provides Palestinians and Palestinian Americans a rare opportunity to celebrate their culture, history, and future as a people.

You could be forgiven, though, for imagining that Palestine Writes was something much more dramatic than a literary gathering, because its very existence seems to be a huge threat to certain people and institutions.