It was an event that almost didn’t happen. But in the end, more than 500 people packed out a basement hall in London for a night of poetry and performance that marked cultural solidarity with the Palestinian people. But PalFest – the Palestine festival of literature, an annual event in London since 2008 that was co-founded by the Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif – was left without a venue after the Royal Geographical Society cancelled their booking, following security fears in the light of the Israel-Hamas war.
Organisers had sold 600 tickets and had just days to find an alternative venue. They secured the hall inside the National Education Union in London at the last minute. Audience members stood round the stage and sat on the floor when the seats ran out, as well as joining online.
The event began with a one-minute silence, described by Soueif as being “for everyone, especially all the children, who get killed in these moments of conflict”. Updates from Gaza interrupted proceedings in real time – when all electricity and telecommunications were cut off and later the announcement of a ground offensive by Israeli troops.
Soueif called the killings of civilians “deplorable, cruel deeds” and also acknowledged the “tremendous importance” of Jewish voices speaking out against the war, including several figures in the room. She called the Nakba – the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war – an “ongoing process” and speakers reflected powerfully on 75 years of Israeli occupation for Palestinians.
Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah spoke of a 2009 trip to Ramallah that had given him a “tiny glimpse” of life under occupation, citing students forced to travel three hours to get to their classes and ill people unable to travel to different parts of the country for medical care. He condemned Hamas’s “intolerable and unforgiveable” attacks and also spoke of Israel’s “brutal, vengeful returns”. He summed up with the words: “It’s too much, killing people this way.”
Actors Julie Christie and Harriet Walter gave highly charged readings of extracts by writers from the region, while novelist Mohammed Hanif sent out an urgent plea: “Does the world have a heart big enough for both Israeli mothers and fathers, and Palestinian parents, to hug their children to sleep with the reasonable assurance that they will be alive the following morning?”
Soweto Kinch, the saxophonist and rapper, performed music while Palestinian-Egyptian poet Tamim Barghouti spoke of the occupation’s impact. Meanwhile, author Matthew Teller recounted growing up in a Jewish family in Britain and gradually questioning the Zionist ideals on which he was raised. “We holidayed in a settlement in East Jerusalem. Everyone we met was Jewish or Israeli or both, and every story we heard was of the miracle of Israel.” When he began travelling around the Middle East, he added, “I heard new ways of telling the stories I knew. And every time I went back to Israel, it made less and less sense, until it made no sense at all.”
Actor Tobias Menzies read out chilling social media posts by Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, currently in Gaza, that spoke of bombs dropping and civilians dying all around him. One, from two days ago, read: “My neighbours are killed.” Another spoke of how there were not enough hospital beds: “Children are screaming. It’s dark except for the light of the explosions. We are hardly alive.”
Soueif acknowledged the immense charge of the night – how tears were being shed, as she wiped away her own. Omar Hamilton, PalFest director, spoke of the raised significance of the event: how it gave some the chance to mark the suffering of Gazans together, rather than following it alone. But he sounded his concern over the erosion of rights to gather and exchange ideas about Palestinians in this country and internationally, as some face being cancelled, sacked or demoted. He cited a draft resolution in America to outlaw student activism on Palestine. “We really hope,” he said, “this will not be allowed to settle into a new reality. The fundamental right to gather and exchange is meant to be part of a bedrock of the country, but it’s rapidly eroding.”
Earlier, Rashid Khalidi, the eminent Palestinian-American historian and Columbia University professor, had spoken of the “university and government persecution of student activism” – and that sentiment was echoed by Mustafa Sheta, general manager of Freedom theatre in the West Bank. Speaking from Jenin refugee camp office on Friday, he spoke of the importance of art and culture as resistance.
He cited cultural figures in the area who had been under “administrative detention” without charge including Bilal al-Saadi, chair of the board at Freedom theatre, imprisoned since September 2022, and Mohammed abu Sakha, a circus performer, also arrested and detained without trial. Sheta said he had been prevented from travelling abroad and threatened by Israeli intelligence officers in anonymous calls.
Until war broke out, the Palestinian Performing Arts Network (PPAN), an umbrella organisation for theatremakers, had been planning a November showcase of Palestinian culture spanning everything from circus to dance and music.
“Artists have an important role to play in talking about Palestinian identity during this invasion,” Sheta added. “We are scared to talk freely but we will continue being artists. We are part of the process in the fight against apartheid and racism.”
• This article was amended on 30 October 2023. An earlier version misconstrued the context for Ahdaf Soueif’s comment on the killing of civilians as “deplorable, cruel deeds”. It also misnamed the Royal Geographical Society as the National Geographical Society.
