In May 2013 I resigned from PEN America over the appointment of former State Department official Suzanne Nossel. A decade later, PEN America has become a propaganda arm of the state.
Chris Hedges
March 23, 2024
PEN America, once an important defender of rights for writers, editors and artists, has, under the direction of former State Department official Suzanne Nossel, abandoned its mission, destroyed its credibility and provoked a revolt among its members.
Its refusal to condemn the genocide in Gaza and Israel’s targeted killings of writers, academics and journalists, has seen numerous writers withdraw from the annual PEN World Voices Festival in New York and Los Angeles, scheduled for April and May. PEN America has not only failed to denounce the genocide but provides platforms to Israelis who use racist and dehumanizing language to describe Palestinians.
It blacklists those who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. PEN America functions as a propaganda arm for the Biden administration and Ukrainian government — including the banning of Russian writers from a PEN event last May. It has repeated false accusations against Julian Assange and refused to classify him as a journalist.
PEN America peddles agitprop. It is our version of the Union of Soviet Writers. The human rights violations by our enemies are heinous crimes and our own, and those of our allies, are ignored or whitewashed. Writers and editors, such as Assange, who expose the lies and crimes of the state, are discredited, while propagandists for U.S. imperialism and the apartheid state Israel – even as it carries out genocide – are fêted.
Angela Flournoy and Kathleen Alcott canceled their participation in PEN’s “New Year, New Books” event in January because of PEN’s invitation to Mayim Bialik who Flournoy explained engages in “dehumanizing anti-Palestinian propaganda and rallying her 5 million followers to the cause of the Israeli military.” At the Bialik event in Los Angeles in February, Palestinian-American writer Randa Jarrar was forcibly removed from the room for protesting.
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READ MORE: The Chris Hedges Report