Margaret Atwood, Canadian novelist, activist and general rabble-rouser, has been awarded the Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University. As an outspoken advocate on everything from censorship to poverty to women’s equality to gay rights to arts funding, many human rights activists around the world are hoping Ms. Atwood will join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign and decline the award.
John Greyson, the academic, teacher, superb political filmmaker and committed activist who recently led the campaign to boycott the Toronto Film Festival in reaction to its uncritical spotlight on Tel Aviv, has drafted and distributed the excellent letter to Ms. Atwood below.
Below Greyson’s letter is another letter from students of Gaza. For those wishing to support the students of Gaza on this issue, they are asking that you send a letter to Ms. Atwood as well (address below). As an artist who has stood up for so many, it would be surprising to not see this renowned word-artist stand up—by either boycotting or using the award as a platform for redress—for the oppressed people of Palestine. Considering the prize clocks in at a cool one million dollars, she will likely accept it. But to accept it uncritically would be a little like uncritically accepting a literature prize in 1970 in Hanoi, given out by Washington.
April 5, 2010
Margaret Atwood
c/o McClelland & Stewart
75 Sherbourne St., 5th Floor
Toronto, ON
M5A 2P9Dear Margaret:
Back in 1981, I remember vividly that when the Toronto police raided several bathhouses and arrested 300 men, you agreed to speak out at a hastily arranged benefit — the first public figure to do so. Your courage meant a great deal to our gay community then, and your words were typically memorable: “Why on earth would the police object to cleanliness?”
I understand you’re going to Israel in May, to accept the Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University. Will you find words for the Gaza students who wrote to you yesterday, 44 miles down the coast, asking you to refuse the prize? Will you mention the ongoing siege of Gaza, and the larger occupation, whose check points and security wall have reduced the region to an apartheid state? Will you mention the two unarmed teenagers Mohammed Qadas, 16, and Asaud Qadus, 19, who were shot by Israeli army snipers last week? His aunt says that Mohammed had gone out to buy ice-cream. Why on earth would the army object to ice-cream?
I write today as a fan, someone whose life was changed on reading A Handmaid’s Tale, someone who still treasures my rare edition of The Journals of Susanna Moodie. For decades, you’ve been an extraordinary role model for so many of us, embracing the role of artist as a figure of conscience. You’ve consistently spoken out against a host of injustices, even as you engaged with the complexities of each issue. In May, will you decline this prize, in recognition of the growing boycott movement which is trying to contribute to peace in the region? Will you at least speak out against the war crimes committed a year ago? Will you perhaps donate a portion to a writers group in Gaza? Will you at the very least acknowledge the complexities that this award, and this conflict, represent? Or will you remain silent, making us wonder: why on earth would Margaret Atwood of all people object to complexity?
Sincerely,
John Greyson
Associate Professor (York), filmmaker
An Open Letter to Margaret Atwood from Gaza: Don’t Stand on the Wrong Side of History
Besieged Gaza,
Palestine
April.4.2010Dear Ms. Atwood,
We are students from Gaza representing more than 10 academic institutions therein. Our grandparents are refugees who were expelled from their homes in the 1948 Nakba. They still have their keys locked up in their closets and will pass them on to their children, our parents. Many of us have lost our fathers, some of us have lost our mothers, and some of us lost both in the last Israeli aggression against civilians in Gaza. Others still lost a body part from the flesh-burning white phosphorous that Israel used, and are now permanently physically challenged. Most of us lost our homes, and are now living in tents, as Israel refuses to allow basic construction materials into Gaza. And most of all, we are all still living in what has come to be a festering sore on humanity’s conscience—the brutal, hermetic, medieval siege that Israel is perpetrating against us, the 1.5 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip.
Many of us have encountered your writing during our university studies. Although your books are not available in Gaza—because Israel does not allow books, paper, and other stationary in—we are familiar with your leftist, feminist, overtly political writing. And most of all, we are aware of your strong stance against apartheid. You admirably supported sanctions against apartheid South Africa and called for resistance against all forms of oppression.
Now, we have heard that you are to receive a prize this spring at Tel Aviv University. We, the students of besieged Gaza, urge you not to go. As our professors, teachers and anti-apartheid comrades used to tell us, there was no negotiation with the brutal racist regime of South Africa. Nor was there much communication. Just one word: BOYCOTT. You must be aware that Israel was a sister state to the apartheid regime before 1994. Many South African anti-apartheid heroes, including Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have described Israel’s oppression as apartheid. Some describe Israeli settler-colonialism and occupation as surpassing apartheid’s evil. F-16s, F-15s, F-35s, Apache helicopters, Merkava tanks, and white phosphorous were not used against black townships.
Ms. Atwood, in the Gaza concentration camp, students who have been awarded scholarships to universities abroad are prevented, every year, from pursuing their hard-earned opportunity for academic achievement. Within the Gaza Strip, those seeking an education are limited by increasing poverty rates and a scarcity of fuel for transportation, both of which are direct results of Israel’s medieval siege. What is TAU’s position vis-à-vis this form of illegal collective punishment, described by Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights in the OccupiedTerritories, as a “prelude to genocide?” Not a single word of condemnation has been heard from any Israeli academic institution!
Participating in normal relations with Tel Aviv University is giving tacit approval to its racially exclusive policy towards Palestinian citizens ofIsrael. We
are certain you would hate to support an institution that upholds so faithfully the apartheid system of its state.
Tel Aviv University has a long and well-documented history of collaboration with the Israeli military and intelligence services. This is particularly shameful after Israel’s bloody military assault against the occupied Gaza Strip, which, according to leading international and local human rights organizations, left over 1,440 Palestinians dead and 5380 injured. We are certain you would hate to support an institution that supports a military apparatus that murdered over 430 children.By accepting the prize at Tel Aviv University, you will be indirectly giving a slight and inadvertent nod to Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide. This university has refused to commemorate the destroyed Palestinian village on which it was built. That village is called Sheikh Muwanis, and it no longer exists as a result of Israel’s confiscation. Its people have been expelled.
Let us remember the words of Archbishop Desmund Tutu: “if you choose to be neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” As such, we call upon you to say no to neutrality, no to being on the fence, no to normalization with apartheid Israel, not after the blood of more than 400 children has been spilt! No to occupation, repression, settler colonialism, settlement expansion, home demolition, land expropriation and the system of discrimination against the indigenous population of Palestine, and no to the formation of Bantustans in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip!
Just as every citizen knew that s/he had a moral responsibility to boycott apartheid in South Africa after the Sharpeville massacre, Gaza 2009 was the world’s wake-up call. All of Israel’s academic institutions are state-run and state-funded. To partake of any of their prizes or to accept any of their blandishments is to uphold their heinous political actions. Israel has continually violated international law in defiance of the world. It is illegally occupying Palestinian land. It continues its aggression against the Palestinian people. Israel denies Palestinians all of the democratic liberties it so proudly, fictitiously flaunts. Israel is an apartheid regime that denies Palestinian refugees their right of return as sanctioned by UN resolution 194.
Attending the symposium would violate the unanimously endorsed Palestinian civil society call for Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. This call is also directed towards international activists, artists, and academics of conscience, such as you. We are certain that you would love to be a part of the noble struggle against the apartheid, colonization and occupation that the Palestinian people have been subjected to for the past 61 years, a struggle that is ongoing.
Ms. Atwood, we consider you to be what the late Edward Said called an “oppositional intellectual.” As such, and given our veneration of your work, we would be both emotionally and psychologically wounded to see you attend the symposium. You are a great woman of words, of that we have no doubt. But we think you would agree, too, that actions speak louder than words. We all await your decision.
Besieged Gaza
The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)Endorsed by The University Teachers’ Association in Palestine
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{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
To: Margaret Atwood
c/o McClelland & Stewart
75 Sherbourne St., 5th Floor
Toronto, ON
M5A 2P9
Dear Margaret Atwood, I understand that you have been awarded the Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University. As an outspoken advocate on censorship, poverty, womens equality, gay rights, arts funding and much else, I urge you to not accept the award. But if you decide to go to Tel Aviv University to accept the award, I urge you to use the ceremony as a platform for redress —for the oppressed people of Palestine. Many human rights activists around the world are hoping that you will join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign and decline the award and the ceremony.
Yours sincerely, Lynne Cohen, Professor University of Ottawa(Retired); Recipient Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts 2005
What a great series of letters for an important cause! Apartheid in Israel is real and attempts to whitewash the crimes of the Israeli military through the Israeli Foreign Ministry's "Brand Israel" campaign – which seeks to deflect attention from the Israeli military's daily and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians by 'rebranding' Israel through a focus on arts, culture and science – are for naught. South Africa tried the exact same 're-branding' strategy in the 1980s as the BDS movement against apartheid grew in strength and we all no the results of that campaign. As any brand expert will tell you, marketing will only take you so far if consumers are able to recognize flaws with the underlying product.
Only when Israel ends its military occupation, allows Palestinian refugees to return, and repeals the 26 discriminatory laws within Israel itself that distinguish between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens will consumers 'buy' the Israeli brand. Until then we can all lend our support to important Palestinians initiatives like PACBI (see:http://www.pacbi.org/).
It's clear that Israel hopes to use Atwood's reputation as a plus for themselves by giving her recognition.
The facts are in. Israel is a destructive, apartheid-like state worse than South Africa whose former white regime they supported while Mandela suffered.
Victor Fletcher / Toronto Street News
Today, Atwood still has the acceptance on her agenda here: margaretatwood.ca, righthand column, May 9. She might use her speech to criticize or even decline. Also, I am interested in her reply to the brave, inspiring and righteous students in Besieged Gaza.
I hope that Margaret Atwood is strong enough to resist public pressure to refuse the award, and that when she gets up to receive that award, she uses her voice to speak out against the occupation and any other human rights infringements, whilst bolstering tolerance, dialogue, and moderate elements on both sides of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. No one deserves to be boycotted based on their ethnicity, place, of birth, or gender.
Of course she should not decline for public pressure! She could decline from her own thinking. For having a backbone. Mr. Sternthal, Israel has already left the "bolstering tolerance, dialogue" field (approx January 2009). "she uses her voice to speak out …" — she can do from Canada. It's South Africa in the 80's all over again, including the disgusting visuals. No boycott for ethnicity etc. indeed. But yes a boycott for Israel' s behavior (google Gaza, Goldstone).
Surely she should decline for reasons of principle and political commitments. I would think that the words that her public have to say to her about this do matter to her, but ultimately it comes down to her own principles. Boycotts and sanctions against countries with systemic human rights violations are not new – remember when artists weren't going to play Sun City? Israel should not be exempt, should it?
Also, how is supporting the BDS campaign "immoderate"? Do those who defend Israel right or wrong have the right to make that call? This kind of thing sounds very similar to American exceptionalism to me.
Ms. Atwood has responded to these requests by noting that cultural boycotts set "a dangerous precedent"; Margaret Atwood is one of our heroines, someone who has consistently stood up for what is right, and who does not need the prize to bolster her public image or for any other reason. We have to trust that she knows what she is doing, and that her intentions are right. I have no doubt that Ms. Atwood will use this opportunity to condemn wrongful political activities and promote art as a conduit to conscience.
Dear Margaret,
I implore you not to accept any awards, although you are deserving of such for your literary output and support for the rights of others, from Israel. Historical and oral evidence shows that she rose from the destruction of Palestine with the full support of imperial Britain and other nations. Israel continues to slaughter innocent civililans with complete impunity from the world's politicians so it is up to the real world, meaning non politicians, to stand up for the rights of those that do not have the luxury to do so. Israel hands out such awards so as to legitimise their actions and existence as an ethnocratic and racist state. I hope you will place the rights of all the Palestinian women that have lost babies whilst waiting at checkpoints for medical treatment above those of Israel's PR strategy. Also, your refusal will show solidarity with those women that have died during childbirth whilst Israel refused to allow them medical attention. Yours with the greatest respect.
I am a great admirer of Margaret. She was on Adventure Canada's "North of 60" eco-trip with me several years ago ( as a passenger starting out with crutches after a bike accident), and I know how committed she is to protecting the environment and protecting natural species from the obsesses of human greed. I wish to implore her to reflect on the prize she is anticipated to receive and either boycott it, or strongly condemn the actions by the Israeli military against Palestinians who have had their lands stolen, buildings bull-dozed, or been denied medical supplies or the essentials of living decent lives.
Rejecting the prize would be letting them off too easy. This is just an attempt to buy legitimacy for Israel. Rejecting the prize would be letting them off too easy. Why nor accept it make a nice speech about peace and human rights and announce that she is donating the money to B'tselem or the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions or any number of other worthy Israeli organizations. Now that would make a statement that would be talked about for a long long time. These bstd have been getting away with blackmail and manipulation for too long and it will not end until it is turned against them.
Belalin, that is an amazing idea. Yes! She should accept and give most if not all away to ICHAD, B'tselem, Combatants for Peace, The Freedom Theater,… and so many other orgs doing critical work in Palestine. We should rally a crew to write and suggests such actions.
Dear Margaret. I love your books but I will lose some respect for you if you go to Israel and accept this award. I encourage you to research what actually goes on there on a day-to-day basis and the injustice and complete oppression the Palestinians face. Once you discover the absolute one-sided war going on there, you will realize what an absolute slap in the face it would be to the Palestinians and to activists against the occupation if you did go to accept the award.
Please be aware, at least, of the message this would send if you do go.
I Too must echo the plea for Ms Atwood not accept this award in Israel and support the growing Boycott Divestment Sanctions Campaign. As a lesbian , a woman and someone who has been inspired by your books, I have learned that my liberation will never come until ALL people are free. For this reason the queer and feminist communities must support the Palestinian struggle against the cruel US supported Israeli occupation of Palestine . Free Palestine! Support the BDS campaign!
I hope Ms. Atwood would be smart enough to condemn Palestinian terrorism, Palestinian women abuse, the war between Hamas and Fatah and the use of children in the war against Israeli civilians.
Mark:
Under a brutal and illegal occupation backed by one of the world's most powerful military industries, and with a land grab, civilian death toll and general terror FAR outweighing against the Palestinians, Ms. Atwood would risk looking like an ass to follow your advice. The internationally-condemned siege against the people of Gaza is the back-drop to which Ms. Atwood approaches the stage to accept this award. Surely, as a woman who has stood in solidarity with the oppressed, subjugated and over-powered, she would serve her human rights mission much better (and look smart doing it!) to address the problems facing the occupied, not the occupiers.
For condemnation of Palestinians, just turn to the mainstream press anywhere and you'll find plenty to meet your fancy.
I think this conversation needs a little bit of re-directing. All of these boycotts are aimed at de-legitimizing Israel as a nation-state. This is a morally bankrupt policy. The Palestinians have legitimate national aspirations as well, but to claim that their pain and suffering is the exclusive result of Israel is a new and improved version of anti-semitism, a denial of history and a denial of reality. Look at how they are treated as pawns throughout the Arab world. Ask about their attempts to gain citizenship in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The Arab League has left them in a lurch whereby they cannot become citizens of any country.
The settlement enterprise is problematic and has become its own beast. This is true. But this is something for the locals to figure out: how to let a sovereign nation not be faced with an existential threat at every turn, while also honoring the legitimate national aspirations of another group as well. Human rights abuses, especially including the treatment of women and gays, are far more egregious within Gaza, the West Bank and many other sovereign Arab states than any area under full Israeli governance.
As leftists around the world try to use blunt tools to wreak havoc on one people in the name of the other, they strangle their own leftist bretheren within that society. Israel ends up as the first safe haven from Darfur for refugees who travel their on foot. Israel, when it takes dangerous mis-steps in curtailing journalist's rights in the name of national security, curtailing freedom of movement, etc….faces tremendous internal criticism and movements to change. However, as Syria and Iran try to exercise dominance in the region and fight shadow wars through Hezbolla and Hamas, they–not Israel–are the true oppressors of the Palestinians.
Michael:
It is telling that nowhere in your comment do you mention the referent point for this discussion: the artist Margaret Atwood and the dilemma she undoubtedly faces as she moves toward accepting a prize from an internationally-condemned human rights abusing state. The cries of antisemitism you make are just another smoke screen to shroud Israel's actions and make everyone feel guilty for daring to criticize the "Jewish state." It's two-dimensional, irresponsible and entirely predictable. What's far more interesting for our pages here, is what an internationally-renowned and steadfast activist artist like Atwood will choose to do, and what we think she should do.
I agree with those who urge Ms. Atwood to accept the award and then donate it to a Palestinian organization of her choice. That would be a much louder statement than boycotting the ceremony and would provide much needed resources to Palestinians.
As Prof. John Greyson I'm also a person that was influenced by the book "A Handmaid’s Tale", This week I read another text of the briliant writer Margaret Atwood – a letter to one of the people who urged her not to white-wash the war crimes of Israel with her prescence – and this text is describing the situation of Israel with the words: "There is also asymmetry in the region as a whole, with a huge number of hostile Muslims surrounding Israel on all sides. " (when the more exact words of the Palestinians should be a paraphrase on Melcolm X speach " We didn't land on Plymouth Rock – that rock landed on us." – We didn't surrounded Israel – Israel landed on us"…. anyway, It's not the first time to find that a white guy is, at the end, not more than a white supremacist… and many times, books are better than their writers.
Hi Iris,
Thanks very much for your comment. I'm wondering if you can send us a link of the text you've found? Behatzlacha, ezra.
[Comment removed at the request of the comment's author.]
I agree with Michael. He is totally right. When has Israel initiated war with any of their neighbours? When has Israel fought when it was not in retaliation? If any other country in the world had hostile neighbours surrounding them and wanting to destroy them, it would have the right to defend itself. Except for the Jewish state. There is a total double standard against Israel. Where in the Arab world could you have gay pride parades? And be able to speak up against your own government without fear of imprisonment or death? Or be able, as a woman, to walk around without being harrassed if your hair is showing? If you had the choice, where would you live: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or Israel?
The comments about Israel posted above are not about Atwood and her "ethical" dilemma. They are about the legitimacy of Israel, and it is inappropriate for Israel to be targeted by "artists"
I fully agree. Why on earth no other evil done elswhere is followed by such strong responses as Israel's one?
The ethnic cleansing of Palestine that began in 1947 was unprovoked, and began the refugee problem which led directly to today's mess. Read Ilan Pappé.
Margaret Atwood would be doing the moral thing to refuse this award. The boycott is not against a people but against a state which has been engaged in crimes against the Palestinians for more than six decades.
The direction of this article is extremely upsetting to me, and will be to my class-mates (some of whom are Arab). I am an English Literature student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and have participated in several courses that closely examine and appreciate some of Atwood's works. My professor has dedicated a significant part of her career to Atwood's contribution to literature. We have been excitedly anticipating her travelling to Israel for some time, and humbly consider her visit to Tel Aviv Univerisity as a huge privilege.
Why would all of you try so hard to sabotage this for us? I can assure you that the reception of a Canadian writer in Tel Aviv Univeristy, which educates hundreds of Arab students, harbors no threatening political agenda! Allow us to honour her with this award, that is being presented to her out of an academic appreciation for her collective work.
"Why would all of you try so hard to sabotage this for us?": the answer is in the post. Did you read it? Why did you not react to the two letters?
To help ypour own understanding of the situation right around you, could you research how out of 29.000 students at TAU, only "hundreds" are Arab (some 2%), while 20% of Israel are Palestinians ("Arabs")? You could also ask your "Arab" class-mates to speak for themselves, instead of using them in your shop window.
Let me first start by thanking our Jewish brothers and sisters on this comment board and elsewhere who are courageously standing up for the truth and against the racism and apartheid policies and human rights abuses of the Zionist state of Israel. This conflict was never and will never be against Jews because they are Jews nor is it a religious war at all. It is a conflict between people who lived on the land for thousands of years fought many times to protect it throughout history and made accommodation for all its people who are beautifully diverse and a group of invaders who hell bent on emptying the land and establishing a racist supremacist militaristic entity that thrives on nothing but war and conflict. Jews and Palestinians (Muslims & Christians) will despite all objectors live and thrive as a great brotherly community in the land of Palestine under a common unified government that extends equal rights, privileges and responsibilities to all. We still have HOPE.
Mr. Attwood I am a big fan of your writing and I am a fellow Canadian citizen and I urge you to neither accept nor travel to Israel until this conflict is resolved by eliminating this apartheid entity.
Ms. Atwood
Thanks for going to Israel and accepting the prize. The problem are those who want to wipe Israel off the map. Israel will exist forever as the homeland of the Jewish people.
Dear Ms. Atwood,
Please do not take part in the anti-Semitic actions of the divestment campaign and, more impoertantly, ask yourself why Israel and not its lovely, human-rights-loving regional neighbors? If you have to divest from a country, perhaps Saudi Arabia might be a more suitable choice–a country with no religious freedom, few basic rights for women, sharia and child marriage (a closer realization to Gilead from “A Handmaiden’s Tale” you would be hard-pressed to find). Or perhaps the charming nation of Sudan, where 1.5 million Christians were starved or massacred in the 1990s. Or perhaps Egypt, Syria or Libya–countries with single party rule, kleptocractic leadership and ruthless suppresion of dissent.
Haha you lost losers!
“We don’t do cultural boycotts. Artists don’t have armies. What they do is nuanced, by which I mean it is about human beings, not about propaganda positions.” –Margaret Atwood upon accepting the prize
So Margaret Atwood used these words: "witch-hunts", boycott would be to "disengage from the whole problem", "There will only be an outcome if the two sides sit down at the table", "attacking Daniel Barenboim for his efforts [is a cheap thing to do]", "That is not to defend Israeli military actions, but fear can lead people to do terrible things".
Well, clearly she has never heard of South Africa's recent history, has chosen sides, will pick up the money, and will write them straight into peace afterwards. She must be convincing a lot of Palestinians, and at the cheapest price she could ask for.