Current sectionArt & CultureShare to FacebookShare to XArticle printing is available to subscribers onlyPrint in a simple, ad-free formatSubscribeComments: Zen reading is available to subscribers onlyAd-free and in a comfortable reading formatSubscribeThe free expression advocacy group PEN America has been embroiled in Israel/Palestine-related controversies since the October 2023 Hamas attack. Credit: Christopher Smith/Invision/AP; CanvaEthiopian American author Dinaw Mengestu resigned last week, reportedly calling it 'unethical' for the free speech group to take a position against BDS. PEN had published interviews with 30+ Jewish and Israeli literary professionals on the industry's post-October 7 'hostility'Etan Nechin New York06:14 PM • July 12 2026 IDTThe president of PEN America, the free expression organization that advocates for writers and produces research on threats to free speech, resigned on Thursday, hours after the group's website published interviews with Israeli and Jewish writers, translators and literary agents that described facing "hostility and exclusion" in the publishing industry after the October 7 attack and Israel's war in Gaza.Loading...Click the alert icon to follow topics:BDS MovementIsrael literatureJewish cultureJewish DiasporaCommentsLoading...In the NewsIn the News: Israel NewsU.S.-IranTrumpHussam Abu SafiyaAndy BurnhamBrad LanderIsrael ProtestsHaQuizHaaretz PodcastPEN America Head Quits After Article Against Cultural Boycott of IsraelisJerusalem's Last Gay Bar Is ClosingWere Polish Women Really Joyless? A New Book Says NoNew Graphic October 7 Episodes Shock 'Fauda' ViewersThis School Wants Israelis to Do More Than Order Hummus in ArabicRemembering and rebuilding two years laterICYMIThe Original Tradwives of Ancient RomeThe 'Special Relationship' Is Gone, and Israel Isn't Ready for What's ComingAs Israel Lacks Hundreds of Patrol Officers, West Bank Staff DoublesMade in Kurdistan, Smuggled via Jordan: The Mysterious Firearms Flooding IsraelEgypt Lost the World Cup. But Was the Referee Really Jewish?Inside the German pro-Israel Lobby's Campaign to Defund UNRWA