HIGHLAND PARK (JTA) — A public reading and talk at a New Jersey library by the author of the children’s book “P is for Palestine” went forward amid protests outside after being postponed in May due to objections from the local Jewish community.
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Four adults and three children attended the event Sunday at the Highland Park Public Library, the Bridgewater Courier News reported. All were reported to be members of the Jewish community in the Central Jersey town.
Approximately 125 people protested the reading as 10 supporters of the alphabet book also demonstrated, according to the report. Critics of the book say it glorifies violence, notably a two-page spread on the intifada, uprisings from the late 1980s and early 2000s.
A local resident, Lisa Ben-Haim, was among those who protested the reading, saying it “promotes anti-Semitism and the BDS movement.”
“We feel enough is enough,” she said.
The Iranian-born author, Golbarg Bashi, is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Bashi has said “intifada” encompasses a broader and largely nonviolent Palestinian cultural resistance.
After the library postponed its May reading, it canceled a public hearing over objections to the book, citing safety and crowd control, and then announced it would reschedule the event.
Democrats the lot of them
As I long time member of the Edison/HP community, I was referred here this afternoon because I know the named local resident and her family.
The named local resident says that the book “promotes anti-Semitism and the BDS movement.” I wonder whether she has read the book.
I have read portions of the book, and while I object to it, while it makes geopolitical comments about “Palestine” that we all would find disingenuous and factually off base, and while I think it whitewashes the political situation, it largely does so by omissions. I now actually want to read the entire book, because I have seen nothing that promotes Antisemitism.
“Antisemitism” is a real and growing problem, and we need to be careful to guard against undisciplined overuse of the label. And we should never be people who burn books without first reading them.
So Palestinians replaced the Pig, because P used to be for Pigs
This is a very sad day for highland park NJ a town that promotes itself as “hate has no home here” has completely opened its doors to it and embraced it. Shame on them. Shame on the library and shame on the Liberal hypocrisy.
It is hard to argue against a children’s book without looking foolish.