Irish author John Banville has withdrawn from a Spanish literary festival after it excluded an Argentinian author over pressure exerted by pro-Palestinian student groups protesting her opposition to the cultural boycott of Israel.
The International Festival of Art, Literature and Cultural Humanities Cultur-Alh is an annual event organised by the University of Granada. It is in its second year.
The festival ran from September 21st to 27th.
Ariana Harwicz, a Jewish-Argentinian novelist, was scheduled to participate in a talk at the festival on September 26th.
The festival organisers cancelled her talk and rescinded her invitation after university activists complained about Harwicz’s views.
Banville confirmed he had cancelled his appearance at the festival’s closing ceremony on Sunday but declined to comment further, saying: “My cancellation was my statement.”
The Booker Prize-winning novelist was one of the festival’s headline acts.
In a post on social media network X, Harwicz said her invitation was rescinded, adding that the organisers “gave in to pressure from militants” and “terror”.
“The organisers said how much they admire my books, which are anything but propaganda. They deprogrammed me at the last moment,” she wrote in the post.
“I wanted to go anyway even if they held a demonstration, they said it would be dangerous. It will be a festival without dissent. What a shame for the students.”
The university said it was not involved in disinviting Harwicz and criticised the decision.
Harwicz said she had been removed because the festival’s organisation had informed her that her presence could lead to protests by student groups.
In a statement, the Cultur-Alh Festival acknowledged that it had received “requests” from the University Network for Palestine of Granada, one of the book clubs participating in the event and some readers to exclude the Argentinian author.
The organisation decided to “modify the programme in line with the University of Granada’s commitment to human rights and the agreements adopted by its governing council regarding Palestine”.
More than 350 writers and other cultural figures have signed a petition defending Harwicz, stating that “defending freedom of expression only for those who think like us is not defending it” but rather “replacing free confrontation of ideas with ideological selection”.
The decision was condemned by a number of organisations such as the Argentinian Embassy in Spain and the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain.