There has been a debate over the idea of an academic and cultural boycott of Israel on the Open Democracy website. Jaqueline Rose called for the boycott here. Linda Grant argued against Rose here. Rose answered here. Omar Barghouti renewed the call for the boycott here. And now Samir El-youssef has replied to Barghouti.

Samir El-youssef is a Palestinian writer and critic who was born in 1965 in Rashidia, a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. Since 1990 he has lived in London. Among his books is one co-written with the Israeli writer Etgar Keret, Gaza Blues: Different Stories (David Paul, 2004)

"The actual meaning of 'true peace based on justice' is that Israel must be punished before a Palestinian is allowed to greet an Israeli in the street". The Palestinian writer Samir El-youssef dissects the language of Omar Barghouti's call for a boycott of Israel.

Omar Barghouti responds to Linda Grant's argument against a cultural boycott of Israel by saying that she is "shifting the debate from issues of accountability, moral responsibility and legality into cliched personal stories". He goes on to state that his own call for a universal and institutional boycott of Israel aims to make that country comply with "international law and fundamental human rights" as the only way to reach "true peace based on justice".

Barghouti's line of argument and language raises severe doubts about both claims. First, because it is Barghouti himself (rather than Linda Grant) who seems to be "shifting the debate" by dictating that Israel alone of all states and groups in the middle east (he doesn't mention any others) must be held accountable and responsible, legally and morally, for its actions.

Second, because Barghouti presents his case for "fundamental human rights" and "true peace" in a tone of bombast. His article is full of questionable assumptions, biased assertions, reductive and dismissive statements, condemnations and accusations against those who disagree with him. The language is reminiscent of Palestinian orators who used to urge us to keep fighting "the Zionist enemy" until the "liberation of every single inch of Palestine".

As a Palestinian, born and brought up in a refugee camp in Lebanon at the time when the PLO was a dominant force in the country, I feel that the content and style of Barghouti's article suggest that he has other concerns than peace on his mind.

Do read the rest here.

Linda Grant adds the following:

Can I bring to readers attention this annoucement from Swedish PEN?

It is a great testament to Samir that he will speak out against the silencing of writers, in every country, including attempts to silence Israeli writers in the name of the Palestinian cause. I have the honour of accompanying him to Stcokholm where I will be making the keynote address on the sigificance of his work.

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE SWEDISH PEN CENTRE, TUESDAY 26 APRIL 2005

Swedish PEN has decided to grant the Tucholsky award of 2005 to the Palestinian writer Samir El-youssef

Samir El-youssef is a Palestinian writer and critic. He was born in Rashidia, a Palestinian refugee camp in south of Lebanon, in 1965. And since 1990 he's been living in London where he studied philosophy and gained MA from University of London.

As a novelist, El-youssef has published four books of fiction of which Gaza Blues, Different Stories (co-authored with the Israeli Etgar Keret) is most recent. He writes in both Arabic and English, and some of his work has been translated to German, Italian, Greek and Norwegian. He has just completed his first novel in English.

He is also an essayist with a wide range of interests which includes literature, politics, philosophy and cultural studies in general. His essays and reviews have appeared in major Arabic periodicals and newspapers such as the London-based Al-Hayat.

With the Tucholsky award, members of Swedish PEN want to honour the free word and to give support and help to their colleagues throughout the world. This award has been named after the German writer Kurt Tucholsky, who came to Sweden in the beginning of the thirties as a refugee from the Nazi regime in Hitler's Germany. Still waiting to have his application for political refuge granted he committed suicide in 1935 and was buried in Mariefred, Sweden.

The Tucholsky award (150.000 SEK or ca 15.000 Euro) is given every year to a writer or a publisher who is either being persecuted or threatened, or is living in exile.

This award was established by Swedish PEN in 1984 and has been awarded to many writers among which - Adam Zagajevski, Bei Dao, Nuruddin Farah, Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasrin, Svetlana Alexievich, Salim Barakat, Asiye Guzel Zeybek, Rajko Djuric, Jun Feng and Yvonne Vera.

Common to them, is that they all during a period of their lives has been oppressed, persecuted and threatened to their lives for one reason only; that those in power wanted to silence them as writers.

In most cases they were forced in exile. Most of them without a possibility to ever return home.

Swedish PEN
Stockholm, 26 April 2005
Ljiljana Dufgran,
President of Swedish PEN,