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Book Event for Award-Winning Jewish Author Canceled After Co-Panelists Refuse to Appear Alongside ‘Zionist’
Illustrative: Pro-Hamas protesters in front of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City’s Upper East Side neighborhood. Source: X/Twitter
A book event for award-winning author Elisa Albert was canceled after two fellow panelists refused to appear alongside a “Zionist.”
The nixed event, which was set to take place at the Albany Book Festival, was going to cover the female “coming of age” experience. The organizers of the event New York State Writers Institute (NYS) wrote that they were “nonplussed” at the decisions of Aisha Gawad and Lisa Ko to refuse to attend the panel, but decided to cancel the event anyway.
Mark Koplik, NYS assistant director, sent Albert a letter saying that Gawad and Ko “don’t want to be on a panel with a ‘Zionist.’” Koplik added that Gawad and Ko’s decision not to share the event with Albert took the organization by “surprise” and that they “want to talk this out.”
Albert stated that the book event cancellation was the latest instance of discrimination she has experienced since the Hamas Oct. 7 attacks on the Jewish state.
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised,” Albert said. “I’ve been really vocal from the get-go, and I’ve lost many friends. I’ve seen my whole professional life wildly altered. I’m not surprised at all. I’ve seen all kinds of people behaving in all kinds of ways that are on the spectrum of this exact same kind of bigotry, complicity, fear — all of it.”
Despite the heavily anti-Israel sentiment prevalent throughout the literary world, Albert has been a public and vocal supporter of the Jewish state since the Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1,200 people. She has criticized Hamas supporters on social media and penned articles defending the Jewish state. Weeks following Oct. 7, she wrote “An Open Letter to Hamas’ Defenders” in which she defended the need for a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We unequivocally condemn antisemitism,” Koplik said in an email to WAMC public radio. “I can’t tell you how sad and upsetting this is for me personally.”
Koplik added that the organizers refused to remove Albert from the panel, which resulted in two authors refusing to participate in the event.
“We no longer had a panel to be moderated. We fully support Elisa’s expression of outrage and disappointment. We believe in civil dialogue, and we condemn intolerance of any kind,” Koplik stated.
Zionists authors have faced a torrent of backlash from the literary industry in recent months. Joshua Leifer, the author of Tablets Shattered, was unable to hold a discussion at a New York City bookstore after the manager canceled the event over the presence of a “Zionist” rabbi on the panel. PEN America, a prominent literary society, was forced to cancel its annual awards ceremony after the organization refused to condemn the Israel-Hamas war as a “genocide” and agree to deplatform “Zionist” writers.
The post Book Event for Award-Winning Jewish Author Canceled After Co-Panelists Refuse to Appear Alongside ‘Zionist’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.