Bookstore chain removes leftist book from shelves

[Scurrilous]

Tzomet Sfarim stops distribution of The National Left after right-wing sources put pressure on management. Book contains harsh criticism of settlers, settlement enterprise

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3874378,00.html

<snip>

"Days after it began selling the political doctrine The National Left, written by playwright Shmuel Hasfari and attorney Eldad Yaniv, which was sold for NIS 1 ($0.27), Tzomet Sfarim bookstore chain on Sunday announced it will stop distributing the book.

According to information received by Ynet, right-wing elements have been pressuring the chain's management in recent days to stop distributing the book in which the authors make harsh accusations against settlers and the settlement enterprise, calling to dismantle it and "stop the occupation." Ynet also learned that sources at Tzomet Sfarim expressed concern that the affair will harm the chain.

The bookstore chain's spokesperson said, "Tzomet Sfarim is a chain for all of the people of Israel and has no political affiliation. It is never responsible for the content of the books that are distributed in its stores. Because we received many complaints that the book hurts the feelings of some of our customers, we decided to stop selling it."

Last September, the authors began distributing the book, which contains ideas on how to resurrect the social-democratic dialogue, and is written in a witty language, interwoven with provocations.

The authors described the settlers as "the lords of the land, hardly pioneers. They never planted a tree or built a house. It’s the Ahmeds that did all that for them. For years the settlers have been forcing us to build the future Palestinian land – at our expense."

[Violet_Crumble]

1. What an absolutely insipid and weak excuse from the bookstore....

'The bookstore chain's spokesperson said, "Tzomet Sfarim is a chain for all of the people of Israel and has no political affiliation. It is never responsible for the content of the books that are distributed in its stores. Because we received many complaints that the book hurts the feelings of some of our customers, we decided to stop selling it."'

What sort of sooks would complain to a bookstore that a book 'hurt their feelings'?

[Jefferson23]

2. ANYTHING to shut down the conversation...no surprise here, just disappointment that it goes on.

[Scurrilous]

3. Banned in Canada

Jewish groups protesting a pro-Palestinian book are missing the point

<snip>

"The Forest of Reading is a recreational program run by the Ontario Library Association. Every year more than 250,000 Ontarians vote for their favorite books, a tradition that culminates in The Festival of Trees, Canada’s largest literary event for young readers. It’s a waterfront party with authors, illustrators, and live music.

It all sounds so sylvan and merry. But this year, in the Red Maple category—the recommended reading list for 7th and 8th graders—one of the 10 nominated books is The Shepherd’s Granddaughter by Anne Laurel Carter. And its inclusion is making a lot of Canadian Jews very unhappy. The book tells the story of Amani, a Palestinian girl in the West Bank who wants to be a shepherd like her grandfather. But the land that has been in her family for generations is now under Israeli occupation. Israeli soldiers prevent the family from harvesting their olives, grazing the sheep, or driving on the highways near their home. Israeli settlers poison the sheep’s water, bulldoze Amani’s house, and shoot and kill her dog. Amani’s father and uncle are beaten and thrown in jail; her father seeks justice and peace through negotiation, but her uncle believes in violent resistance. There is one sympathetic Jewish character, a teenage settler who realizes that the Jews are wrong and decides to leave the country. In a heavy-handed metaphor, the Israelis are repeatedly compared to wolves stalking the sheep. A Jewish rabbi and a lawyer who help Palestinians make brief appearances, but the book gives no indication that there is a serious Israeli peace movement.

The book was published in 2008 to mostly good reviews and little controversy. But when it was nominated to the 2010 Forest of Reading list, the uproar began. Canadian Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded that the book be "made unavailable" to students. "The Simon Wiesenthal Center does not promote censorship," said president Avi Benlolo, "but the issue is that this book is so skewed and so overtly against the State of Israel. … Any school child who reads the book will grow to hate the State of Israel and possibly the Jewish people." The Jewish Tribune, a publication of B’nai Brith Canada, ran a story with the provocative headline: "Could this book turn your child against Israel?" The story’s opening sentence: "Reading this book made me want to go to Palestine and kill Israelis." The quote was attributed to a girl named Madelaine on the book review site Goodreads.com. Quoting her was Toronto parent and Jewish Tribune contributor Brian Henry, who also wrote an open letter to Ontario’s education minister demanding the book’s withdrawal from the reading list. "Unfortunately, that’s a perfectly natural reaction to this book," Henry wrote. And in the same issue of the Tribune, Sheila Ward, a trustee of the Toronto District School Board, said, "I will move heaven and earth to have The Shepherd’s Granddaughter taken off the school library shelves."

Ward, it was clear, hadn’t read the book. "This book," she wrote, "on the basis of what Mr. Henry has sent to me, is so blatantly biased that it is intolerable. I suspect I’ll be accused of censorship. If it means I will not support hate-provoking literature with no redeeming qualities, I am delighted to be called a censor."

Anita Bromberg, national director of legal affairs at B’nai Brith Canada, told me in an interview that calling the book into question had nothing to do with its literary merit. "The book isn’t badly written," she says. "I’ve read most of it. What we are questioning is the educational value. Anyone without a lot of background or experience who was reading it would accept that everything in there gives context to what goes on in the Middle East, but it is one-sided, biased, and more based on propaganda than truth. I think this book is inappropriate to be on the list or in the school setting."

The Canadian mainstream press has picked up on the story. For now, Toronto school officials say the book will remain in school libraries, but Henry is filing a formal complaint. Concern over the book's one-sidedness is understandable. But there’s a larger question here: How do we determine which books children should be allowed to read? Who should get to decide whether books are carried in school libraries or added to curricula?"

more

[LeftishBrit]

4. If a book 'hurts your feelings', there's a simple solution: Don't read it

No reason to prevent it from being available to others. Melanie Phillips and Ann Coulter, to name just two, 'hurt my feelings', but I don't demand that bookshops can't stock them.

[Scurrilous]

5. Israeli Stores Stop Selling Book That Denounces Settlers

<snip>

"An Israeli bookstore chain announced on Sunday that it would stop selling “The National Left,” a political manifesto by two Israeli authors who compare settlers living on occupied Palestinian land to “brainwashing, hypnotized zombies” transforming Israel into “an apartheid state.”

The Israeli Web site Ynet News reported that the chain, Tzomet Sfarim, had said in a statement: “Because we received many complaints that the book hurts the feelings of some of our customers, we decided to stop selling it.” Ynet added that “right-wing elements have been pressuring the chain’s management in recent days to stop distributing the book.”

According to the book’s authors, Shmuel Hasfari and Eldad Yaniv, Israelis need to start a political movement to oppose the demands of the settlers and bring about the immediate creation of a Palestinian state.

In the text, which is available for download from the Web site of the Federation of American Scientists and is embedded below (see link), the two men imagine the start of their movement and write, in a description of its founding rally:

This is what the first speaker will say: "Israel is a democratic, Jewish state. If we remain in the territories we will have to choose: either Jewish or democratic. It won’t work together, because in a democracy the majority rules and soon (Arabs) will be the majority between the Jordan and the sea. If we want to remain a Jewish state, we will have to deny the rights of the majority and we will turn into an apartheid state. If we insist on remaining democrats, an Arab prime minister will soon be elected by a majority of votes."

One of the authors, Eldad Yaniv, told Ynet that they will respond to being dropped by the bookstore by giving away hundreds of thousands of copies of their book for free. “Just as they twist the prime minister and defense minister round their little finger, just as they control the state’s entire budget — they also think they can control which books get sold,” he said. "I think that today they proved that what the book says about them is justified."

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/israeli-stores-stop-selling-book-that-denounces-settlers/