Indian American Literary Magazine Co-publisher Resigns Over ‘Zionist’ Essay On Israel-Hamas War
- Madhuri Sastry alleged that Joanna Chen’s essay in Guernica was “a wringing apologia for Zionism and the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”
Indian American human-rights activist and researcher Madhuri Sastry has resigned as co-publisher of the online literary magazine Guernica, following the publication of personal essay about coexistence and war in the Middle East. The prestigious online literary magazine retraced the essay, titled “From the Edges of a Broken World,” by in Israeli writer Joanna Chen about her experiences trying to bridge the divide with Palestinians.
A writer and translator of both Hebrew and Arabic work, Chen moved to Israel from the United Kingdom as a teenager, a report in the Jewish Telegrapic Agency said. In the essay, she “details her commitment to coexistence and frets over the ways in which Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel has challenged it,” according to various news reports, including The New York Times and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. She writes about volunteering to drive Palestinian children from the West Bank to receive care at Israeli hospitals.
The Guernica page that used to house the essay now has the post saying “Guernica regrets having published this piece, and has retracted it. A more fulsome explanation will follow.”
In a social media post announcing her resignation, Sastry called the essay “a hand-wringing apologia for Zionism and the ongoing genocide in Palestine.” She’s “deeply ashamed to see this piece in Guernica’s pages,”she said, apologizing to “the writers, readers, and supporters who feel betrayed by this decision.” She stands by her “courageous staff members who have been holding us accountable every step of the way.”
Sastry is among at least a dozen members of the magazine’s all-volunteer staff who have resigned since the essay was published. The Times of Israel notes that the article began “drawing criticism from within the Guernica staff as soon as it was published online.”
The publication of Chen’s piece, Sastry said in her statement, violated the magazine’s “anti-imperialist” spirit. She wrote that she had initially pushed the magazine to support a cultural boycott of Israel but was told that the publication’s politics should be expressed “solely through our editorial choices and position.” Now, she said, an editorial process she sees as opaque had led to the publication of a piece she could not support. “I am deeply ashamed to see this piece in Guernica’s pages, and sincerely apologize to the writers, readers and supporters who feel betrayed by this decision,” the co-publisher tweeted.
The Asian American Writers Workshop describes the New York-based Sastry as “an amateur but dedicated home cook,” who lives with her “partner, a corgi mix, and about 20 plants in a concrete jungle.”
Before joining the magazine, Sastry worked as a campaign leader/coordinator with the American Red Cross. In that role, she “led and conducted International Humanitarian Law awareness and training for high school students around New York City,” her LinkedIn page says. She also moderated several panel discussions on the relation between war and gender, torture, access to health, and refugees. Prior to that she was a researcher at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
There she conducted “extensive research on Women, Peace and Security Issues.” In addition, she co-authored a publication titled, “The Pieces of Peace: Realizing Gendered Conflict Prevention.” She has a Master’s Degree, International Law and Legal Studies from NYU School of Law, and a Masters in Law degree from the The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Named after one of the best-known painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, Guernica was founded in 2004 partly in response to the Iraq War, and “focuses on the intersection of arts and politics,” according to its website. It has published work of prestigious writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, George Saunders and Jesmyn Ward.