The "Palestine Writes Literary Festival" is being held at the University of Pennsylvania later this week. This has attracted severe criticism from Jewish groups and individuals within and without Penn because some of the speakers have a history of engaging in antisemitic rhetoric.
The Penn administration acknowledges that people have raised concerns about several speakers who "have a documented and troubling history of engaging in antisemitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people." Penn nevertheless defends hosting the conference on academic freedom grounds, but adds that the conference was not organized by the university.
OK, but one may wonder why several academic departments are "sponsors" of the festival, meaning that they are providing funding. It's not an academic conference, as such; some of the speakers are neither Palestinians, academics, nor poets; and it's hard to imagine these departments funding a conference featuring speakers with a similar history of denigrating other minority groups.
