The General Union of Palestinian Writers salutes international writers
who are boycotting the Mishkenot Sha’ananim festival and condemns in
the strongest terms the participation of writers whose names were announced
by the festival organizers as participants. The Union calls on Palestinian
intellectuals and cultural workers, writers, novelists, academics and
journalists to boycott the festival and not to meet with its participants
who are not welcome [among us] as they have shamed themselves.

The organisers of the festival demanded opening speakers must show
their speeches to management in advance – in an effort to avoid a repeat
of a 2010 speech that criticized Israel. Another example of how Israeli
organisations complain, inaccurately, that BDS is censorship while stamping
on free speech themselves.

Read
the GUPW statement

Writers
festival: Submit speeches for vetting
– Ha’aretz article