Academic Freedom, for Anti-Semites Alone

This weekend, the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, whose self-described mission is “celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists,” is taking place at the University of Pennsylvania, co-sponsored by several of the college’s institutions. Following complaints by major Jewish organizations, the university issued a statement acknowledging that “several speakers [at the event] have a documented and troubling history of engaging in anti-Semitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people,” while making clear that to prevent the event from taking place would be an affront to academic freedom. The organizers, meanwhile, issued a statement defending themselves against accusations of anti-Semitism from “highly funded, connected, and organized Zionist organizations” that “operate in the shadows.”