[News] New York bookseller bowed to Israel supporters after violent threats

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://electronicintifada.net/content/new-york-bookseller-bowed-israel-supporters-after-violent-threats/23301 



  New York bookseller bowed to Israel supporters after violent threats

Ali Abunimah <https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah> - 13 
February 2018

------------------------------------------------------------------------

A New York City bookseller faced threats of violence from Israel 
supporters before it caved in to demands to sign a statement repudiating 
the nonviolent BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions – movement for 
Palestinian rights.

The statement, written by a local rabbi, also declares that Israel has a 
“right to exist.”

Columbia University Students for Justice in Palestine and 
Columbia/Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace are reaffirming a call 
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DEO1YaSFmN09q-LM_GTke0uCXup8KUjQTDL8yuEOQXk/viewform?edit_requested=true> 
to boycott the bookseller, Book Culture, unless it rescinds the statement.

Book Culture issued the statement in the wake of threats and 
intimidation because it was promoting a children’s book called /P is for 
Palestine/.

The petition, signed by 18 faculty members and almost 200 students, 
alumni and community members, accuses Book Culture of “bowing to 
pressure from pro-Israel groups that seek to silence literary 
representations of the Palestinian right to resist.”

“Book Culture’s suppression of literary freedom is profoundly 
demoralizing, especially given its stated allegiance to free speech and 
progressive values,” the petition adds.

Many students from Columbia and other area colleges order their course 
books through the independent bookseller.

The student groups liken 
<https://www.facebook.com/notes/columbia-students-for-justice-in-palestine/update-on-the-petition-to-boycott-book-culture/10156594986530931/> 
Book Culture’s capitulation to the recent retreat by the New Orleans 
city council, which repealed 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/new-orleans-repeals-human-rights-resolution-shield-israel> 
a human rights measure due to concerns it could be used to hold Israel 
accountable. They also compare it to the United Nations’ suppression 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/un-official-resigns-after-pressure-withdraw-israel-apartheid-report> 
of a report on Israeli apartheid.

Such cave-ins “embolden Zionist organizations agitating against 
Palestinian human rights; they come to learn that violence, blackmail 
and censorship tactics work,” student groups stated in affirmation of 
the boycott call 
<https://www.facebook.com/notes/columbia-students-for-justice-in-palestine/update-on-the-petition-to-boycott-book-culture/10156594986530931/>.


    “People could get hurt”

Chris Doeblin, co-owner of Book Culture, said that as soon as news broke 
that one of the store’s branches would be hosting an 18 November reading 
<http://www.bookculture.com/event/columbus-storytime-golbarg-bashi> by 
Golbarg Bashi, author of the children’s alphabet book /P is for 
Palestine/, “a terrific and virulent storm” ensued.

“We, the staff and the store in general, received threats of mayhem, 
violence, obstruction, boycotting and the like from emails, in person 
and phone calls,” Doeblin told The Electronic Intifada.

“On the day of the event itself, the owners of the store came and stood 
together to proclaim in person that we would not be cowed into removing 
the book or refusing to host the presentation of /P is for Palestine,/” 
he said.

“Following the event the onslaught of opinion and the effort to censor 
the book continued,” Doeblin added.

Asked to describe the threats, Doeblin said, “they were, for example, 
‘you better watch out’ and ‘some people could get hurt.’”

The store was concerned enough to notify the New York Police Department, 
though Doeblin said they did not send an officer to watch the event as 
requested.

Asked if he would characterize the people making the threats as 
pro-Israel, Doeblin responded, “Yes, absolutely.”

The store attempted to appease the anger.

Doeblin told The Electronic Intifada that at the request of a “group of 
young mothers” who were attacking /P is for Palestine/, his store hosted 
a reading of a children’s book <http://www.bookculture.com/sixdayhero> 
glorifying Israeli combatants in the 1967 War which marked the beginning 
of Israel’s brutal, ongoing occupation and its illegal colonization of 
the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Syria’s Golan Heights.


    Angry “mommas”

/P is for Palestine/ author Golbarg Bashi told The Electronic Intifada 
that all hell broke loose after she posted an announcement about her 
planned reading on Upper East Side Mommas, a Facebook group with more 
than 27,000 members.

Bashi was taken aback by the level of vitriol she encountered, with 
attacks not only mischaracterizing the book, but denigrating the 
Iranian-Swedish author because of her ancestry.

“I was immediately slandered and threatened in that forum. In a page for 
mothers, I saw naked racism and class-based prejudice in the eye,” Bashi 
stated 
<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156818974612892&set=pb.561947891.-2207520000.1517330211.&type=3&theater> 
on Facebook.

All this over a children’s book: as the civil liberties group Palestine 
Legal explains 
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/2017/11/29/nyc-book-store-receives-calls-to-censor-palestine-childrens-book>, 
/P is for Palestine/ “features a Palestinian girl with black curly hair 
who takes a diverse group of children through an illustrated ‘alphabetic 
adventure to Palestine’ with phrases such as ‘B is for Bethlehem,’ ‘F is 
for Falafel’ and ‘J is for Jesus.’”

But what raised the ire of Israel supporters, according to Palestine 
Legal, is “the use of the word ‘Palestine’ in the book’s title” and the 
“use of the word intifada to illustrate the letter i.”

For this, one member of the Upper East Side Mommas accused 
<https://forward.com/fast-forward/388150/mommy-facebook-group-shuts-down-over-p-is-for-palestine-book/> 
Bashi of “inciting death.” Another declared, “Nothing more racist than 
Muslims!!!!!!!”

Such was the hostility that the moderators had to temporarily shut the 
group down 
<https://pagesix.com/2017/12/02/manhattan-moms-allowed-back-into-facebook-page/>.

But that was not the only online forum for incitement against Bashi and 
her book.


    Incitement and intimidation

On 20 November, the Facebook page “United With Israel” posted an attack 
<https://www.facebook.com/unitedwithisrael/posts/1766473763385591> on /P 
is for Palestine/, exclaiming, “We cannot believe that such a disgusting 
children’s book that supports violence is being sold right in the USA!!!”

Almost 2,000 Facebook users “liked” the post slamming the “sick book” 
and dozens chimed in with calls to boycott anyone who sold it.

The thread quickly devolved into open bigotry against Muslims.

Online incitement morphed into real-life aggression: when a group of 
progressive Jewish parents in New York City decided to show support for 
/P is for Palestine/ by holding a reading for their children at a 
Hanukkah party, it was invaded by a violent right-wing group.

“As our kids settled down to hear /P is for Palestine/, four uniformed 
members of the Jewish Defense League moved into position behind them and 
started filming and harassing them,” parent and anti-racist activist 
Emmaia Gelman recounted 
<https://forward.com/opinion/390530/we-had-a-p-is-for-palestine-party-for-kids-and-the-jdl-showed-up/>.

But the hatred and incitement came not just from the Jewish Defense 
League. Supposedly progressive quarters were arguably even more 
effective in their hateful attacks.


    Written by rabbi

In November, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the nominally progressive Stephen 
Wise Free Synagogue in New York’s Upper West Side declared 
<https://www.westsiderag.com/2017/11/28/local-rabbi-clashes-with-book-culture-over-childrens-book> 
that the book’s inclusion of the word “intifada” meant that it “promotes 
murder,” and as a result Book Culture would be barred from taking part 
in the synagogue’s upcoming book fair because it sold /P is for Palestine/.

That is when Book Culture’s owners were called in by the synagogue.

“We were asked to agree to a statement that is now public record written 
by the rabbi,” Doeblin wrote to The Electronic Intifada. “Some of that 
statement puts us in a pro-Israel light and anti-BDS.”

Doeblin insists he was never asked to remove the book from sale and 
would not have agreed to do so, although according 
<https://palestinelegal.org/2017-report> to Palestine Legal, the 
bookstore for a time “hid” the book “behind the cash register.”

In early February, Book Culture’s stores on 112th Street and at Broadway 
and 114th Street both said they had copies in stock. The book is 
published and sold online by Bashi’s own company 
<https://www.drbashi.com>, which bills itself as a “diverse children’s 
educational start-up, focused on regions and languages with the Arabic 
and Persian scripts.”

In the statement 
<https://www.swfs.org/news/book-culture-releases-statement-stephen-wise-free-synagogue-to-host-book-fair-as-planned/> 
published on the synagogue’s website on 29 November, Book Culture 
expresses “regret that we did not fully appreciate the political or 
communal ramifications of the children’s book /P is for Palestine/ by 
Dr. Golbarg Bashi, nor did we anticipate the pain and distress it has 
caused in our community.”

Book Culture also states that “We oppose terrorism or other forms of 
violence perpetrated against Israeli civilians during the intifada or 
thereafter. Any impression from the book to the contrary is not our view.”

“We support Israel’s right to exist,” the statement adds. “We do not 
endorse the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS).”


    “Under the bus”

For Bashi and supporters of Palestinian rights, the statement caused 
shock and dismay.

“It was very sad reading it – I’ve known Chris for a very long time — 
you know, the way he threw me under the bus,” Bashi told The Electronic 
Intifada.

According to the student groups 
<https://www.facebook.com/notes/columbia-students-for-justice-in-palestine/update-on-the-petition-to-boycott-book-culture/10156594986530931/>, 
the statement “elided the structural violence enacted on Palestinians by 
the Israeli state.”

It made “a racist conflation between the term ‘intifada’ and terrorism” 
and “insinuated that the book promotes terrorism by mentioning the 
intifadas” – the successive Palestinian uprisings against Israeli 
military occupation.

The student groups also note that the statement includes repudiation of 
BDS and an affirmation of Israel’s “right to exist” even though /P is 
for Palestine/ makes no reference to either.

Following the publication of Book Culture’s statement by the synagogue, 
students and faculty signed the petition 
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DEO1YaSFmN09q-LM_GTke0uCXup8KUjQTDL8yuEOQXk/viewform?edit_requested=true> 
calling for a boycott of the store until it rescinds the statement.

Students engaged with the store in an effort to persuade it to do so.

“In the course of several meetings with co-owner Chris Doeblin, we 
outlined the issues we had both with the content of the statement and 
the precedent set through the decision to release it,” Columbia Students 
for Justice in Palestine and Columbia/Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace 
stated 
<https://www.facebook.com/notes/columbia-students-for-justice-in-palestine/update-on-the-petition-to-boycott-book-culture/10156594986530931/> 
in early February.

According to the student groups, Doeblin “initially showed interest in 
releasing a public statement acknowledging the issues with the [Stephen 
Wise Free Synagogue] statement,” but then backed off, telling them in an 
email that he had “concluded that the best course is not to make any 
further statements now.”

Doeblin told The Electronic Intifada that during the meetings, “we had a 
great deal of difficulty finding language that I was comfortable with, 
because I didn’t want to retract what we had gone on the record saying, 
as it was just going to cause more confusion.”


    “Both sides”

Yet Doeblin also seems now to acknowledge – without saying it explicitly 
– that signing the statement was ill-considered.

“I don’t want to be offensive to anybody but it was a statement for what 
we thought was a limited group of congregants,” Doeblin said.

“If we had sat in the room with the rabbi and he said, look we’re going 
to create a public statement together to be released to the world, we 
maybe would have been a lot more cautious and been a lot less open to 
him writing anything and not editing it.”

Doeblin also said that BDS was “not something we were even aware of.”

Unwilling to back down, Doeblin now presents Book Culture as the 
hapless, well-meaning victim caught between two warring and unyielding 
sides.

He emphasizes that the store actively supported /P is for Palestine/ by 
pre-ordering 100 copies and promising to promote it.

“We refuse to be used and politicized by any side,” Doeblin added. “Our 
goal is that one continues to find books that both support and oppose 
any and all of one’s ideas in our stores.”

He told The Electronic Intifada that it was “distressing” to hear 
threats of boycotts from “both sides.”


    Misleading

Yet this effort to equate two “sides” is misleading – though it is the 
type of position Palestinians have become accustomed to in much 
mainstream and liberal commentary.

Asked if Book Culture or its staff received any threats of violence from 
people he would characterize as pro-Palestinian, Doeblin responded 
succinctly: “No.”

He acknowledged that the reading of the children’s book glorifying 
Israel’s 1967 attack 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/article-jerusalem-new-york-times-falsifies-history-1948-1967> 
passed off with “no obstruction, no threats.”

Doeblin acknowledged that supporters of Palestinian rights have not 
asked him to make any statement endorsing their views, but simply to 
rescind the statement he signed to appease the anti-Palestinian groups.

“While the [Stephen Wise Free Synagogue] and other Israel supporters in 
the community seek to compel Book Culture to take a political stand, our 
demand has always been to maintain Book Culture as a neutral space,” the 
student groups state 
<https://www.facebook.com/notes/columbia-students-for-justice-in-palestine/update-on-the-petition-to-boycott-book-culture/10156594986530931/>.

They add that they are not asking the bookseller to take a position on 
BDS, or to endorse or condemn particular books.

“All we ask is for Book Culture to assert its role as a community space 
for education and dialogue, to take no stand on Palestine and Palestine 
literature, just as it does with its books that span the entire 
political spectrum.”

Doeblin insists that whatever people make of his position, “I think it’s 
very important to have and to support bookstores, and an open free 
media.” He said that it is wrong for “anyone to try and boycott or shut 
down a bookstore.”

That position will undoubtedly find instinctive support among some liberals.


    Why boycott?

But boycott campaigners point out that while pleading for open 
discussion, Book Culture is colluding with longstanding Israel lobby 
bullying tactics that have systematically shut down free discussion by 
smearing Palestinians and their cause as inherently violent and “terrorist.”

“We choose to boycott because we know that, in years past, community 
mobilization has proved an effective strategy for holding Book Culture 
accountable to its progressive vision, as in the case of Book Culture’s 
prior union-busting 
<http://gothamist.com/2014/06/26/book_culture_union.php>,” the student 
groups assert 
<https://www.facebook.com/notes/columbia-students-for-justice-in-palestine/update-on-the-petition-to-boycott-book-culture/10156594986530931/>.

“The main reason why progressive faculty have opted over the years to 
order their course books for students from Book Culture was on account 
of the bookstore being independent and progressive compared with the 
Columbia Bookstore, which is part of the Barnes and Noble empire,” 
Joseph Massad, one of the Columbia faculty who signed the petition, told 
The Electronic Intifada.

“Unlike Barnes and Noble though, Book Culture decided to take a public 
and unequivocal position in support of settler-colonialism and in 
support of the violent suppression of Palestinian rights,” Massad added.

“We chose Book Culture over other book stores because we believed it to 
be a more progressive alternative; with its new position it has become 
even more objectionable than the others,” Massad said.

“Its being the last independent bookstore in the Columbia neighborhood 
can in no way be used as a counterweight to its right-wing support of 
violence against the indigenous Palestinians.”

/Ali Abunimah is executive director of The Electronic Intifada./


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