Scottish PEN is deeply concerned about reported police aggression towards peaceful protesters at Thales Arms Factory, Govan, on Wednesday 15 May 2024. The protest peacefully and successfully closed down Thales Arms Factory that day in an effort to draw attention to and disrupt the company’s production of components for Israeli military drones, used in Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

Scottish PEN member Peter Clive submitted the following poems in reply to our recent post, Scottish poets respond to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. We encourage further poetic and literary submissions as our organisation continues to raise awareness of the situation and campaign for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

On Wednesday 14 February 2024, fifteen UK independent bookshops will hold events to raise money for the PEN Emergency Fund to provide support ringfenced for writers at risk who are in and from Palestine.

Chair of the Scottish PEN Writers at Risk Committee, Lizzie Eldridge, spoke at two of the recent protests in Glasgow.

Scottish PEN must yet again condemn the targeted killing of journalists by the Israeli army in its continuing attacks on Gaza. The two young men who died in these latest killings were Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya, whose vehicle was targeted by a missile strike on 7 January as they were trying to interview civilians displaced by previous bombings.

Co-chair of the Scottish PEN Writers at Risk Committee, Lizzie Eldridge, wrote these two stories in response to the conflict in Gaza. The stories were originally published by Literary Revelations, who have given kind permission for them to be reposted here.

This film by writer, Lizzie Eldridge and director, John Quinn was made in collaboration with Scottish PEN, with music by Mick MacNeil. It is their contribution to the exhibition of commemorative artworks at the Catholic Institute in Floriana, marking the six-year anniversary of her death.

Scottish PEN is extremely alarmed by recent events taking place in Malta. On Tuesday, 3 October, Robert Aquilina, the President of the anti-corruption NGO Repubblika, was abruptly called in for police questioning in relation to a press conference he gave the previous Friday, accusing the public broadcaster, PBS, of censorship.