From the Middle East Eye: The award-winning author lambasts US and Israel’s genocide in Gaza at London Award ceremony, stating, “No matter what crimes it committed, it grew up like a protected child in a wealthy home, whose parents smile proudly as it commits atrocity upon atrocity. No wonder today it feels free to boast openly about committing genocide.”
Long a critic of Israel’s occupation, Roy said she “refused to play the condemnation game” by creating “moral equivalence” between Israel and Hamas, citing the double standards often applied to Palestinians and calling on the US to end its support for Israel.
Roy also paid homage to arbitrarily imprisoned Egyptian writer Alaa Abdel Fattah, with whom she shared her award and whom she named PEN’s 2024 Writer of Courage, calling for his release from detention by the Egyptian authorities.
