From email sent out by The Action Network: Susan Abulhawa, the Palestinian novelist, has been denied entry at Tel Aviv Airport on her way to the Kalimat Palestinian Literature Festival sponsored in part by the British Council. Despite the help of a lawyer from the British Council, the US Embassy and the festival organizers who have been on hand to assist, she was been detained by border forces upon her arrival.
She is one of the most commercially successful Arab authors of all time. Abulhawa’s 2010 debut novel Mornings in Jenin, a multigenerational family epic spanning five countries and more than sixty years, looks unflinchingly at the Palestinian question – and became an international bestseller translated into twenty-eight languages. Susan was also a juror among a panel of internationally recognized human rights activists at the recent International People’s Tribunal on US Colonial Crimes in Puerto Rico.
At this point, Susan is in detention awaiting a judicial decision regarding her appeal to allow her entry. Festival organizers and the British Council have stated that her participation is a cornerstone of the festival and very much needed.
Update from PEN America:
NEW YORK—In response to the news that Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa was detained by immigration officials at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and then deported, PEN America expressed concern that freedom of movement and association—specifically the opportunity to engage with fellow writers at literary events—are being denied to individuals because of their views.
Abulhawa had been scheduled to appear as a featured guest at the Kalimat Palestinian Literature Festival held over the weekend in East Jerusalem. According to news reports, she was detained by Israeli immigration authorities at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv upon arrival on November 1. After 36 hours of detainment, during which she appealed the decision to the Supreme Court but was rejected, Abulhawa was deported back to the United States, where she is a citizen and resides. More at the link.
Susan Abdulhawa’s Twitter feed.
