The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the largest coalition in Palestinian society that leads the global BDS movement, calls upon all conscientious Arab and international authors to withdraw from the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2026, which is scheduled to begin on January 21, 2026.
The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is sponsored by the UAE dictatorship and organized by the Emirates Literature Foundation, which was established and funded by the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and Fly Emirates. It is a blatant attempt to whitewash the UAE regime's grave human rights violations, including against Asian migrant workers, and normalize its complicity in war crimes in Palestine and Sudan.
PACBI commends award-winning author R.F. Kuang, who withdrew from the festival, saying she has “always respected organized calls for cultural boycotts against genocide from communities affected… I’m adhering now to the Palestinian BDS National Committee's recent call given the mass atrocities in Sudan.”
Through this festival, among others, the UAE regime seeks not only to whitewash its complicity in war crimes and human rights violations, but also to normalize its crimes through cultural platforms. It has learnt this artwashing mainly from apartheid Israel, its partner in crime.
The UAE’s military-security alliance with Israel’s settler‑colonial and apartheid regime has intensified since the signing of the so‑called “Abraham Accords,” through billion‑dollar military and surveillance deals. Despite Israel’s ongoing genocide, dozens of Israeli arms companies were showcased at the IDEX 2025 exhibition in Abu Dhabi, demonstrating the reality that the Israeli-Emirati military alliance has become a direct lifeline for arming repression across the region. It also serves as a hub for exporting Israel’s military doctrines, developed through the violent oppression of Palestinians, to suppress communities from Africa to South Asia and Latin America.
From the moment Israel launched its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the authoritarian Emirati regime did not hesitate to show its full and unconditional support for the Israeli war machine, going as far as extending a lifeline to Israel and attempting to justify this genocidal war. It has also repressed all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people inside the UAE and undermined international and Arab efforts to end the genocide.
At the same time, the Emirati regime has advanced normalization projects that embed Israeli apartheid deeper into the Arab region. Such agreements have included the land‑route agreement between Haifa and Dubai, extending through Saudi Arabia and Jordan. This project constitutes a tangible bridge for normalization, while simultaneously posing a direct threat to the Suez Canal, the economic and strategic heart of Egypt and the region, and thus to Egyptian and Arab national security.
Beyond Palestine, the UAE’s complicity in supporting and financing war crimes and crimes against humanity has directly contributed to fueling the devastating armed conflict in Sudan. Several investigative reports—including those by The Wall Street Journal, Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, and the United Nations panel of experts—have revealed that the UAE supplied the genocidal Rapid Support Forces (RSF) with weapons and drones, enabling the commission of atrocity crimes, including forced displacement in Darfur. In this context, The Palestinian BDS National Committee has reiterated its call for intensifying pressure on the authoritarian Emirati regime by escalating the boycott of the regime and its interests.
Additionally, the UAE regime’s complicity in human rights violations and atrocities extends further to include crimes committed by the regime and their allies in Libya and Yemen. Within its own borders, migrant workers, especially from South Asia, suffer systematic exploitation and oppression, while many Emirati human rights defenders are subject to violent suppression.
PACBI urges all writers, artists, intellectuals, cultural organizations, and academic institutions to boycott the Emirati regime and all entities complicit in its military‑security alliance with the Israeli apartheid regime, including events such as the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.
Boycotting the UAE regime‑sponsored events is a moral obligation and a concrete act of solidarity with oppressed peoples across the region.