Thousands of Writers Launch Boycott of Israeli Publishers

On Monday, more than a thousand authors issued a pledge not to work with Israeli publishers who are complicit in Israeli apartheid and the dispossession of the Palestinian people.

Since that time, more than five thousand additional authors, librarians, publishers, booksellers, and other book workers have signed onto the declaration, in what amounts to the largest commitment to cultural boycott of the Israeli cultural sector in history.

If you are a writer or a book worker, we urge you to sign on and invite others to do so. You can sign the letter here or read the full list of signatories here.

NEW YORK: Ta-Nehisi Coates in Conversation, Nov. 10

Join us at the historic Riverside Church on November 10 for two conversations with Ta-Nehisi Coates:

• Rabea Eghbariah, Farah Barqawi, Sahar Qawasmi, and Nida Sinnokrot, focusing on the ongoing colonization of Palestine from Gaza to the Galilee, tracing its impact from 1897 to today.

• Noura Erakat and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on thinking beyond the state in the wake of the U.S. presidential election.

LONDON: Edward Said’s THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE, Nov. 20

There are still some tickets available for this landmark event celebrating the re-publication of Edward Said’s The Question of Palestine at Southbank Centre in London on November 20.

Eight of today’s most incisive writers and thinkers on the question of Palestine - Saree Makdisi, Wadie Said, Tamim Barghouti, Budour Hassan, Jehad Abusalim, Avi Shlaim, Ahdaf Soueif, Jacqueline Rose and Max Porter - consider the legacy of Edward Said’s work, and what The Question of Palestine means today.

This urgent, unique event is not to be missed.

Can’t make it to London? Preorder your copy of the book here.

LONDON: Palestine Film Festival, 15-29 November

The London Palestine Film Festival returns this year with an extraordinary line-up that runs 15-29 November in cinemas across London.

Opening with A Grain of Sand, a live performance by Elias Matar inspired by true events, the festival features more than a dozen films old and new, including the UK premiere of From Ground Zero, a portmanteau of 22 short films made in Gaza over the past year.

You can find the full line-up and purchase tickets for screenings here.

VIRTUAL: Giorno Poetry Systems Presents The New York War Crimes

Expanding upon their thirteenth issue, “One Year Since Al-Aqsa Flood: Revolution Until Victory,” some of The New York War Crimes’ many editors convened last weekend for three days of screenings, readings, and conversations at Giorno Poetry Systems, reflecting on the last year of resistance against occupation, apartheid, and genocide.

Featuring Carolina Ebeid, Mohammed el-Kurd, Summer Farah, Nadine Fattaleh, Kaleem Hawa, Trish Salah, the Gaza Poets Society, and Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, the recordings are now available to view online here.

Published in conjunction with targeted direct actions and on significant dates including May Day, Nakba Day, Juneteenth, Pride, and October 7th, the paper has printed the names of Gaza's martyrs, reprinted seminal historical texts, and published new essays, interviews, poems, and translations. Every issue can be read at newyorkwarcrimes.com.

The event was organized by members of The New York War Crimes Editorial Collective, Writers Against the War on Gaza, and Eli Coplan.

Book of the Week

Recognizing the Stranger combines intellectual brilliance with moral clarity and profound resoluteness of purpose. This is a book that calls us to witness our place in history. Isabella Hammad deserves our thanks for sharing it with the world.

Sally Rooney

Nine days before October 7, 2023, award-winning author Isabella Hammad delivered the Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University. The text of Hammad’s seminal speech and her afterword, written in the early weeks of 2024, together make up a searing appraisal of the war on Palestine during what seems a turning point in the narrative of human history. Profound and moving, Hammad writes from within the moment, shedding light on the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

Moving and erudite, Recognising the Stranger is a brilliant melding of literary and cultural analysis in which Hammad sheds true light on the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

Recognizing the Stranger is published in the US by Grove Atlantic and in the UK by Fern Press.

Reading Roundup

Fighting Words: A Tribute to Refaat Alareer - Yousef Aljamal and Rawan Yaghi, both former students of Refaat Alareer, reflect on Refaat’s martyrdom and the lessons of his that they carry with them.

Hunger the Grasshopper and Famine the Locust - A new poem from Fady Joudah: “starvation harvested miracles for us, / and solidarity spoke / in a bubble.”

Literary Institutions Are Pressuring Authors to Remain Silent About Gaza - Lisa Ko highlights how the censorious politics of literary institutions around Palestine chills creative expression and destroys the fabric of artistic community.

Images from the War - A prose poem by Doha Kahlout, translated by Yasmine Seale: “The body is dug with the voice of our masters. They have eaten what remained of longing.”

When Food Doesn’t Taste Like Home - Doha Kahlout, in Katharine Halls’ translation, describes how the bare conditions of subsistence in Gaza has severed Gazans from their culinary culture, and by extension, from their history.

Seven Perspectives on International Law and Palestinian Liberation - Rabea Eghbaria, Noura Erakat, Alaa Hajyahia, Darryl Li, Aslı Ü. Bâli, Diala Shamas, Maha Abdallah, and Shahd Hammouri explore the dilemma of international law's failure to stop the genocide or protect Palestinian self-determination, and theorize how it might be transformed to contribute to Palestinian liberation.

A Letter Supporting Six Honorable Journalists in Northern Gaza - Steven W. Thrasher and Alice Wong commend the courage of journalists reporting from northern Gaza, and call upon reporters and press organizations around the world to go further in protecting them.

The Limits of Witness - Mary Turfah reads From Beirut to Jerusalem, a 1989 memoir by Dr. Ang Swee Chai which offers an eyewitness account of the Sabra and Shatila massacres, to think about the politics of the medical gaze.

Lessons From Decades of Black and Palestinian Organizing - Chenjerai Kumanyika and Demetrius Noble narrate the evolution of a Black politics of solidarity around Palestine since 1948, and describe the robust landscape of transnational solidarity that exists today.

An Alternative Economy Takes Root in the West Bank - Nadine Fattaleh and Andrew Ross explain how post-October 7 restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank has led to a return to the land, and an emergent movement for food sovereignty.