On another scandal – Marc Tracy in NYT:
‘Guernica, a small but prestigious online literary magazine, was thrown into turmoil in recent days after publishing — and then retracting — a personal essay about coexistence and war in the Middle East by an Israeli writer, leading to multiple resignations by its volunteer staff members, who said that they objected to its publication.
In an essay titled “From the Edges of a Broken World,” Joanna Chen, a translator of Hebrew and Arabic poetry and prose, had written about her experiences trying to bridge the divide with Palestinians, including by volunteering to drive Palestinian children from the West Bank to receive care at Israeli hospitals, and how her efforts to find common ground faltered after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s subsequent attacks on Gaza.
It was replaced on Guernica’s webpage with a note, attributed to “admin,” stating: “Guernica regrets having published this piece, and has retracted it,” and promising further explanation.’
Read the article here.
Many things can be said about the essay by Joanna Chen, it might by mundane, a tad sentimental, too personal perhaps, but what do you expect from literature when this text make you quit a magazine? Is the apparent lack of self blame so abhorrent that just the thought 'this too will pass' turns the volunteers of this magazine into collaborators if the occupation? In tat case, the book shells should be cleaned of all kinds of collaborating authors. Literary iconoclasm awaits us.
That in Stalinist times authors at the writer’s union would betray a college because supposedly he had smeared the working class, alas, fear can be an excuse, opportunism an explanation.
Even if you believe that Israel should disappear from the earth and the Jewish citizens should return to let’s say Europe you should be able to bear texts that don’t fall in line with the orthodoxy.
I’m very curious to read the lengthy explanation by Guernica.
It seems that some people believe that literature should only be produced by saints, who sign anti-Zionist declarations before being published.
‘We love your novel, but tell us, what do you think of Gaza?’