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CENTER FOR LA
Susan B. Tuchman,
Esq.
Director, Center for Law
and Justice
ZOA Challenges
Children’s Book
Reading Promoting
Intifada
Last spring, when the Highland Park (New
Jersey) Public Library considered whether
to host a public reading of a book that
praises and encourages violence against Jews,
members of the Highland Park community
contacted the ZOA. The ZOA immediately
took action.
The book at issue, entitled P is for Palestine,
is a children’s alphabet book that pairs every
letter of the alphabet with a corresponding
word. For the letter I, the book states: “I is for
Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for
what is right, if you are a kid or a grownup!”
In a letter to the library’s board of trustees
urging them not to host the book reading, the
ZOA explained that in fact, “Palestinian Arab
intifadas are heinous, murderous uprisings
that purposefully target Israelis and Jews,
including children. Palestinian Arab intifadas
against Israelis and Jews include hand grenade
attacks, rocket attacks, assaults with guns and
explosives, and suicide bombings on buses, in
restaurants, shopping malls and other public
places.” The ZOA cautioned that the book
promotes and praises violence, will misinform
and mislead children, and violates the library’s
mission to be a community resource “where
everyone feels welcome.”
The anti-Israel group that calls itself
“Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP) threatened
the library that disallowing the book reading
would violate the state and federal constitutions.
In a follow-up letter, the ZOA assured
the board of trustees that the library was not
constitutionally required to host a hateful and
misleading anti-Israel program.
“Public libraries have broad discretion
to decide what materials to provide to their
patrons,” the ZOA wrote. Indeed, the
Supreme Court has stated that it is a library’s
responsibility to “separate out the gold from
the garbage.”
Plainly as a compromise, the library decided
to reschedule the book reading, as well as
another program relating to a book about
Israel. The author of P is for Palestine read
the book at the library on October 20, 2019,
amid protests outside the library. Reportedly,
only four adults and three children attended
the reading, all members of the Jewish community.
The ZOA provided informational
sheets about the book’s falsehoods for library
patrons.
OA Ch ll