The Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) calls on all conscientious Arab and international authors to withdraw from the “Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2022,” which is set to start on February 3rd.
This festival, predominantly sponsored by the UAE dictatorship, including the Dubai police and the Government of Dubai, is a clear attempt to whitewash its brutal violations of human rights. By inviting – with a lot of fanfare – Israelis who publicly oppose basic Palestinian rights under international law, the festival also attempts to normalize the regime’s military-security alliance with Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid.
In addition to this festival being an attempt to normalize[1] Israel in an Arab country and for an Arab public, it is also part and parcel of the UAE regime’s policy of artwashing and sportswashing its war crimes in Yemen, and its horrific domestic human rights record, including criminal oppression of migrant workers, mostly from South Asian
— source bdsmovement.net | Jan 21, 2022