Arab intellectuals from several Gulf countries have announced their boycott of a festival that is set to be held in the UAE next February.
The so-called Gulf Alliance Against Normalisation said that Omani writer Bushra Khalfan, Kuwaiti writer Mona al-Shamri, and her fellow citizen Ali Ashour decided to boycott the Emirates Airline Festival for Literature.
The organizers of the festival announced the names of those invited to participate, including Israeli writer David Grossman, “a defender of the Apartheid regime in occupied Palestine and an opponent of the right of return of displaced Palestinian refugees,” according to the coalition.
The list of invitees included writers, academics and intellectuals from a group of Arab countries.
It is noteworthy that the UAE, since its normalisation with the Israeli occupation entity in the summer of 2020, has signed numerous agreements with the Zionists and called on Israeli figures to attend most of the events held on its land.
