Jewish Groups Try To Silence Storytime Reading Of ‘P Is For Palestine’
The children’s book “P is for Palestine” stoked controversy because of its entry “I is for Intifada.” Image by LaunchGood
By Aiden Pink October 17, 2019
Jewish groups have issued a legal threat against a public library in New Jersey if librarians proceed with a public reading of a book called “P is for Palestine,” the Bridgewater Courier News reported Monday.
The two groups – the Central Jersey Jewish Public Affairs Committee and the Zachor Legal Institute, a legal group that fights the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel – sent a letter to the Highland Park Library threatening to file formal complaints with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education should they hold the event on 2:00 p.m. on Sunday as scheduled. The groups claim sponsoring the book reading would be anti-Semitic and thus violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The book, which teaches children the alphabet while using concepts from Palestinian history and culture, attracted controversy soon after it was published in 2017 because its entry for the 9th letter was “I is for Intifada. Intifada is Arabic for rising up/For what is right, if you are a kid or grownup!”
“Intifada,” the Arabic word for “tremor” or “shaking off,” was used to refer to Palestinian uprisings in the 1980s and 2000s, which included violent terrorist attacks as well as nonviolent protests. More than 1,000 Israelis and 5,000 Palestinians combined were killed in the two intifadas.
“Based on First Amendment law, the library can and should prohibit the reading of a book to children that legitimizes violence,” Marc Greendorfer, an attorney who wrote the letter on behalf of the Zachor Institute, told the Courier News. “More importantly, however, as a separate matter, the library must independently recognize applicable provisions of federal law.”
A book reading at the library was previously scheduled for May before being postponed. Author Golbarg Bashi, a BDS supporter, said critics didn’t respect the Constitution.
“American librarians have allowed a group to break the First Amendment — a violent group,” Bashi told the Courier News. “Zionists based in that neighborhood. People who adhere to the ideology of Zionism. It is very important [to distinguish] between Judaism and Zionism. These are two different things.”
Bashi also compared the Intifada to Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March.
Jewish groups are also expected to protest outside the library should the reading commence, though attendance is expected to be depressed because that falls a few hours before the start of the holiday of Shemini Atzeret.
A New York bookstore that hosted a reading of “P is for Palestine” in 2017 was protested by the far-right Jewish Defense League.
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at pink@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
