Free speech dying at PEN

By  Joel Simon

The crisis at PEN America is the most striking example to date of the challenges confronting big tent organizations and the realities of operating in this evolving environment. During the years that I led the Committee to Protect Journalists, PEN America was a key partner. As an organization of writers, PEN America leaned in to its free speech bona fides to weather intense controversies, including its 2015 decision to honor Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine that published cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad. In January of that year, two Al Qaeda-inspired gunmen forced their way into the newsroom and murdered 12 people.

But the crisis in Gaza has blown up the appeal of the big tent. A group of writers and PEN America members, with support from a portion of the staff, has denounced PEN America for its failure to label Israel’s military invasion of Gaza a genocide. Some have called on PEN America’s leadership to resign.

PEN America did manage to hold its annual gala in New York last Thursday, even as a small group of protesters from a coalition called Writers Against the War on Gaza greeted guests with fake programs claiming “our efforts to silence dissent and normalize genocide would not be possible without your steadfast support, engagement and, most importantly, your dollars.”

The struggles facing the organizations have most recently focused on a small group of young writers who in a scorching open letter published on April 17 proclaimed they wanted nothing to do with PEN America, which was considering them for various awards. “We refuse to be honored by an organization that acts as a cultural front for American imperialism,” the letter declared. “We refuse to gild the reputation of an organization that runs interference for an administration aiding and abetting genocide with our tax dollars.”

Another letter, originally sent in February and with 1,300 signatories as of mid-March, focuses on the failure to defend the rights of Palestinian writers. “Whose freedom does PEN [America} protect if outside of press releases buried on its website, PEN [America] has remained silent about Palestinian journalists, writers, and poets murdered by Israel?” the letter asks.

Such literary luminaries as Michelle Alexander, Naomi Klein, Lorrie Moore, and Hisham Matar then weighed in in a third open letter declaring, “In the context of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, we believe that PEN America has betrayed the organization’s professed commitment to peace and equality for all, and to freedom and security for writers everywhere.”

In a series of letters and public statements PEN America’s CEO Suzanne Nossel has made the case that PEN America must accommodate all views. “PEN America exists to unite writers in defense of free expression,” Nossel declared in a recent edition of the organization’s newsletter, The Insider.

https://www.philanthropy.com/article/the-pen-america-crisis-free-speech-and-the-future-of-big-tent-organizations

***********************************

My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

*******************************