An event at this year’s Brighton Festival has been condemned by members of the local Jewish community for its “whitewashing of terrorism”, after senior representatives of Hamas and the PFLP were eulogised.
“We are not numbers; the voices of Gaza’s youth”, which took place last week, was focused on the launch of a book with a similar name, featuring poems and essays compiled by Ahmed Alnaouq and Pam Bailey. It featured Alnaouq, formerly an employee of the Palestinian mission in London, in conversation with author and journalist Monisha Rajesh, while British-Palestinian writer and international performer, Tasneim Zyada, recited essays from the collection.
One of the poems read by Zyada included the line “the first time I saw Mama cry was when they killed Sheikh Ahmad Yassin in his wheelchair with Hellfire missiles”. Yassin was the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, and a vocal advocate for the use of suicide bombers; under his leadership the group carried out scores of terror attacks within Israel, murdering hundreds of civilians.
During his discussion with Rajesh, Alnaouq bemoaned the death of Ghassan Kanafani, stating that: “Israel has a habit of assassinating writers and novelists. They did assassinate Ghassan Kanafani in the 70s and Ghassan Kanafani became a symbol as a Palestinian novelist and writer. This is what they do.”
Kanafani was the spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group, perhaps best known for its plane hijackings. He was killed in a car bomb in Beirut in 1972, in what was believed to be a Mossad retaliation for the PFLP’s arrangement of the Lod Airport Massacre earlier that year in which more than two dozen people were killed.
Alnaouq has been circumspect about his own family’s ties to Hamas. He told the audience about the death of his brother, killed by Israel in 2014 – neglecting to mention that his brother was a member of Hamas’s Al Qassam military brigade at the time.
Alnaouq also praised Refaat Alareer, a Gazan writer who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in December 2023, describing how the “We Are Not Numbers” project would not have existed without him. On social media, Alareer was perhaps best known for asking hypothetically “are most Jews evil” before responding “of course they are”.
In the days after 7 October, Alareer bitterly attacked prominent supporters of the Palestinian cause, including Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who had condemned Hamas’s actions. On 10 October 2023, the BBC found itself having to apologise after Alareer was interviewed by the broadcaster and compared the actions of Hamas on 7 October to that of Jewish fighters against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Rachel Barnard, a Jewish woman who lost relatives on October 7, was in the audience at the event:
“I’m not easily scared but I felt very threatened”, she said.
“Relentless, unchallenged false accusations against Israel and the lauding of terrorists was lapped up by a nodding, clapping, self-righteous, sycophantic, conspiratorial audience.
“By the end I wanted to get out fast as I could because I started to understand how the beginnings of a lynch mob must feel.”
The Sussex Jewish Representative Council condemned what it described as “the whitewashing of terrorism” at the event, and expressed disappointment that “even after this event was flagged to the [festival] director, Lucy Davies, nothing was done to ensure any balance in the performance.”
The SJRC said they had met Ms Davies a few months ago, shortly after she had taken over both as director of the Brighton Dome and the Brighton Festival. “Having met and listened to the concerns of a small marginalised community, she found no time in the month-long programme for our community to share our narrative and the pain that we feel”, they said.
“The brutal events of 7 October continue to traumatise both Israelis and Jews across the globe but we have been silenced and blacklisted in the public Arts arena, denying our pain, grief and humanity. We do not want to discuss politics. We want to be recognised as the victims of unthinkable violence on 7 October and for the anguish of hostage families to be acknowledged.
“The situation is a deeply complex one and we are disappointed and hurt that The Dome and the Brighton Festival have not taken more responsibility for the role they play in our community and in the cohesion of diverse communities in our city. Giving space to only one narrative minimises the grief of the Jewish community and further traumatises us…we hope that Ms Davies will consider this when planning next year’s Festival programme and events at The Brighton Dome.”
The Brighton Festival declined to comment.
