Guernica: Shame on You
I am a little embarrassed to admit it: I cried after reading Joanna Chen’s essay, “From the Edges of a Broken World”. My emotional response stemmed not from her words, powerful in their own right, but by knowing a prestigious non-profit literary journal apologized for accepting it, stating on its website, “Guernica regrets having published this piece, and has retracted it.“
It was an act of cowardice so disturbing and sad, I am left bereft, feeling hopeless in the belief we have the capacity for empathy and coexistence. I want Guernica to explain what it found so disqualifying in Chen’s essay. According to reports, several of Guernica’s staff quit in protest, accusing Chen of “genocide apologia,” or in another account “apologia for Zionism."
Chen, who lives in Israel, is a British-born writer and literary translator of poetry and prose. Her essay focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without taking a side. Or perhaps more appropriately, she took both sides. She detailed her efforts to help Palestinian children in need of medical care by providing them with transportation to and from Israeli hospitals, both before and after October 7th. She recounted her participation—before the horrific Hamas attack— in a course which brought Israelis and Palestinians together “to learn each other’s narratives.”
It is clear from her words that the Hamas attack on Israelis took a personal toll. She described her heart “in turmoil.” In her words, “It is not easy to tread the line of empathy, to feel passion for both sides.” Yet, it is clear Chen tried. She recounted how she thought about the plight of Israeli hostages and also about the plight of women and children seeking shelter in Gaza. The conflict, she wrote, weighed heavy on her as she described staring “…up at the ceiling and imagined it moving closer and closer toward me. Not falling or collapsing but moving, like an elevator descending into the ground.”
Ironically, Guernica describes itself as “a magazine that is a platform for ideas fostering justice, equality, and civic action.” It says it offers “uncompromising journalism.” Perhaps some self-reflection is in order when editors there are affronted by the words of a peace activist who never apologized for the policies of Netanyahu’s government or the actions of extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
When I began reading Chen’s essay, I was aware of the staff protest, so I assumed I would find out why her words were removed. When I finished reading, my heart sank in disbelief. There was nothing there to substantiate the criticism. I thought about the time I stood in front of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica at the Prado Museum in Madrid. It depicts the horror of war and is seen as a protest of what war does to innocent people. Unbelievably, some critics initially said it was too difficult to interpret. I believe the editors who quit their jobs at Guernica need a lesson in history or a few classes on literary interpretation and Guernica, as a respected journal, needs to find its spine.
The archived link to Chen’s essay: https://web.archive.org/web/20240305095742/https://www.guernicamag.com/from-the-edges-of-a-broken-world/