Children's author faces Jewish wrath

[vierundzwanzig]

Tale of boy's life in West Bank prompts pressure groups to call for withdrawal

Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent
Saturday August 23, 2003
The Guardian

Jewish pressure groups are calling on a publisher to withdraw a children's book about a Palestinian boy growing up amid the intifada on the West Bank.
A Little Piece of Ground, by the multi-award-winning author Elizabeth Laird, is a fictional account of how a 12-year-old called Karim - whose family's olive groves have been confiscated by settlers - copes when his father is stripped and humiliated by Israeli troops.

As the boy is swept up in the protest against the occupation, and his friends make a fake bomb, he dreams of developing an "acid formula to dissolves the steel in Israeli tanks".

Macmillan has received three demands for the book to be pulped, and many bookshops are worried about stocking it, lest it provoke further protests from Jewish groups. So far, most of the attacks on Laird have come from North America, led by a chain of Canadian bookshops which made the first "vitriolic" complaint to her publisher. It is understood that others have come from Jewish pressure groups.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1028034,00.html

[ThorsteinVeblen]

1. Portraying Palestinians as humans is Anti-Semitic.

[durutti]

2. LOL, You Beat Me to It

Acknowledgement that Palestinians exist is anti-Semitic.

[QuietStorm]

8. well

if it exposes immoral Israeli behavior it can be construed as such. Edward Said is also construed in this fashion I found his name on a list at campus-watch.org. He is considered Anti-Semitic. So even when Palestinians are speaking on behalf of their culture and people it is construed as anti-Semitic. Another interesting twist.

[revcarol]

3. Is it for sale on Amazon.com?

Time for some REAL compassion!!

[vierundzwanzig]

4. I just checked

You can't get it at Amazon.com but you can at Amazon.co.uk.

All worldwide Amazons use your same userid and I had no problems having books shipped from Europe.

I think this might deserve support.

(Have you turned on 1-click shopping?) ;-)

[rini]

5. I fail to get your point

Is protest no longer allowed, except of course for Arabs? The book is still for sale isn't it? What's your problem?

[yuvalmadar]

6. ^^Seconded

[cherryperry]

7. "Thirded"

eom

[Violet_Crumble]

9. Okay, colour me confused...

But what exactly are you seconding? I hope it's not Rini's comments, because they made absolutely no sense at all and as usual didn't seem to be related to what was being discussed...


Violet...

[yuvalmadar]

10. Have you read that one?

I haven't read the book, but I know much of the Palestinian literature these days mostly contain propaganda, and I assume that if they protest they have a reason for it.

Either way, it's their right to protest, isn't it?
No actions were taken to prevent this book from getting to the shelves, so it is legitimate.

I believe that is what Rini tried to say, and I agree with that.

[Violet_Crumble]

11. No, I haven't read the book..

I don't believe anyone in the thread was saying people didn't have a right to protest, which is why I found Rini's comment pretty bizarre. Just curious, but do you believe people have a right to point out the utter stupidity of some protests?


Violet...

[yuvalmadar]

12. Again, as none of us read this book, how can we say it's stupid?

[Violet_Crumble]

13. Uh, I wasn't saying the book was stupid...

But that doesn't mean that we can't voice our opinions on the stupidity of particular 'protests', doesn't it? In this case there seems to have been a concerted pressure campaign to withdraw the book from sale, which made the comment of Rini's that the book is still on sale a non-statement that had zero to do with the topic. Of course the book's still on sale, or else there wouldn't be pressure still to withdraw it from sale...

Violet...

[yuvalmadar]

14. You misunderstood me

I was talking about the protest, as I said, some of the Palestinian books (Children books as well) contain vast amounts of propaganda and inaccuracies, so without reading the book it is quite impossible to state that the protest is stupid.

And from the original post I thought (And apparently so did Rini) that the article was meant to note illegitimacy in the protest, and Rini said that the book is still on-sale, so the actions *are* indeed legitimate.

[Violet_Crumble]

16. If the book contains what the article says it does...

Then of course the 'protest' (and I hate using that term to describe attempts by groups at censorship) is stupid....

How do you know the actions are legitimate? After all, you haven't read the book, and given that Rini's just got through calling me a neo-nazi in another post in this thread, I don't know if it's all that great an idea to be trying to say what someone like that was thinking...

Violet...

[yuvalmadar]

18. So we agree we have no way to judge?

In the article they told us but a summary of the book.

And about Rini, I don't think I'll change my opinion just because somebody else I don't agree with believes the same way...
I agree that the neo-nazi comment was not in place, but you can't judge an message by the messanger, you know, he can be right from time to time... :)

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jos]

17. I must take issue with the phrase "Jewish wrath"

I am Jewish, and the author does not face my wrath. In fact, I'm totally supportive. Please don't lump all actions by Israel, or Jewish groups in and outside of Israel, as reflective of Jews in general.

Thnak you.

[yuvalmadar]

19. It ain't his fault, that's the title written in the guardian...