Arundhati Roy, globally acclaimed writer and fierce advocate for justice, was awarded the 2024 PEN Pinter Prize. In her acceptance speech, she cut through the noise to expose the brutal reality unfolding in Gaza and Lebanon.
“No amount of power, money, weapons, or propaganda on earth can any longer hide the wound that is Palestine,” Roy declared. The ongoing Israeli-American assault, which she condemned as “televised genocide,” has, according to her, shattered illusions of moral high ground and laid bare the hypocrisy of global power structures.
Genocide Under the Guise of Self-Defense
Roy did not spare words in dismantling the false narratives surrounding the Israeli state’s actions. She outright rejected the notion that Israel’s relentless bombardment and occupation are acts of self-defense. “This is not a war of survival,” she said, “but a war of conquest—an extension of an apartheid state’s reach and a systematic strategy to erase a people.”
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Highlighting the unyielding support Israel receives from powerful allies, Roy pointed to the United States’ unwavering military aid, which has exceeded $17.9 billion in the past year alone. “Let us once and for all dispense with the lie that the U.S. is a mediator,” she asserted. “A party to the genocide cannot be a mediator.”
Historical Amnesia and Manufactured Consent
Roy traced the roots of the current crisis to decades of colonization and dehumanization of the Palestinian people. “History did not begin on October 7th, 2023,” she reminded her audience, denouncing the Western media’s myopia. Israel’s leaders have long propagated hateful rhetoric, labeling Palestinians as ‘two-legged beasts’ and ‘grasshoppers’ to be crushed. These dehumanizing ideologies, Roy argued, laid the foundation for today’s atrocities.
The New Delhi-based author highlighted the complicity of powerful states, particularly the U.S. and European nations, in facilitating this violence as atonement for their past failures during the Holocaust. “In their guilt for one genocide, they have laid the grounds for another,” she said.
The Unyielding Resilience of a People
Roy called attention to the resilience of the Palestinian people. Despite decades of subjugation, they have fought for survival with unmatched dignity. She posed a searing question to the audience: “What peaceful means have the Palestinian people not tried? What compromise have they not accepted—other than the one that requires them to crawl on their knees and eat dirt?”
Closing her address, Roy issued a clarion call that resonated beyond the confines of the hall: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. It will. Keep your eye on your calendar. Not on your clock.”
In her words, Arundhati Roy embodied what many refuse to confront: that the story of Palestine is not just a geopolitical issue; it is an unhealed wound that speaks to the conscience of the world. The veil has been lifted, and there is no turning back.