Post by RedFlag32 on May 24, 2007 19:54:47 GMT
When it Comes to Books on Palestine Censorship Abounds
At a Barnes & Noble in Bayside, N.Y. a book reading and signing of The Scar of David by Susan Abulhawa scheduled for Thursday, May 24th was reduced to a book signing only. The reason Barnes & Noble gave for canceling the reading portion of Abulhawa’s visit was due to ‘sensitivity’ to the Jewish Community, space limitations and the author’s safety, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations of New York (CAIR-NY).
Not only is this book required reading at a Brooklyn college, regarding sensitivity, a review by Library Journal states: ‘While some readers might see this novel as anti-Semitic, it is not. Indeed, Abulhawa goes to great lengths to highlight the universal desire of all people for a homeland. Furthermore, Abulhawa’s compassion for American victims of 9/11 and for those who suffered in the Holocaust illuminates what it means to be humane and spiritually generous. The Pennsylvania-based Abulhawa, herself Palestinian, has crafted an intensely beautiful fictionalized history that should be read by both politicians and those interested in contemporary politics. Highly recommended.’
If we’ve aroused your curiosity about this book don’t worry. It’s not censored here. In fact, we’ve carried that book for some time now and are very, very proud of the fact that you can find this and other books on Palestine here at Leftbooks.com where we are 100% against all forms of oppression and imperialist occupations and war. And, that includes the U.S.-sponsored Israeli genocide and occupation against the people of Palestine who share the basic human right all over the world to be allowed to return to their homeland.
The Scar of David
A Novel by Susan Abulhawa
"We all crawled from the pits of dispossession and tried to survive as best we could under Israeli occupation. Our greatest pleasures were moments of normalcy. A crush on a boy. A card game. Telling dirty jokes while we washed our clothes by hand on the roof of the five-story building. Words of encouragement from a teacher. It is girlhood letters or a pot of stuffed grape leaves. The bond we forged was molded from an unspoken commitment to our collective survival. It reaches through history, straddles continents, spans wars, and holds our collective and individual tragedies and triumphs. Our bond was Palestine. It was a language we dismantled to construct a home." —from The Scar of David
Through the course of this novel, a Palestinian boy grows up as a Jewish Israeli who becomes tangled in a truth he cannot reconcile, and his identity can find no repose but in the temporary anesthetic of alcohol; a would-be suicide bomber is given a name, face and life of a man pushed to incomprehensible limits; an Arab girl of pious and humble beginnings escapes her destiny and lives the "American Dream," which her soul cannot bear; and a nation of destitute refugees living under the general label of "terrorists," emerges in the context of an unredeemed history.
At a Barnes & Noble in Bayside, N.Y. a book reading and signing of The Scar of David by Susan Abulhawa scheduled for Thursday, May 24th was reduced to a book signing only. The reason Barnes & Noble gave for canceling the reading portion of Abulhawa’s visit was due to ‘sensitivity’ to the Jewish Community, space limitations and the author’s safety, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations of New York (CAIR-NY).
Not only is this book required reading at a Brooklyn college, regarding sensitivity, a review by Library Journal states: ‘While some readers might see this novel as anti-Semitic, it is not. Indeed, Abulhawa goes to great lengths to highlight the universal desire of all people for a homeland. Furthermore, Abulhawa’s compassion for American victims of 9/11 and for those who suffered in the Holocaust illuminates what it means to be humane and spiritually generous. The Pennsylvania-based Abulhawa, herself Palestinian, has crafted an intensely beautiful fictionalized history that should be read by both politicians and those interested in contemporary politics. Highly recommended.’
If we’ve aroused your curiosity about this book don’t worry. It’s not censored here. In fact, we’ve carried that book for some time now and are very, very proud of the fact that you can find this and other books on Palestine here at Leftbooks.com where we are 100% against all forms of oppression and imperialist occupations and war. And, that includes the U.S.-sponsored Israeli genocide and occupation against the people of Palestine who share the basic human right all over the world to be allowed to return to their homeland.
The Scar of David
A Novel by Susan Abulhawa
"We all crawled from the pits of dispossession and tried to survive as best we could under Israeli occupation. Our greatest pleasures were moments of normalcy. A crush on a boy. A card game. Telling dirty jokes while we washed our clothes by hand on the roof of the five-story building. Words of encouragement from a teacher. It is girlhood letters or a pot of stuffed grape leaves. The bond we forged was molded from an unspoken commitment to our collective survival. It reaches through history, straddles continents, spans wars, and holds our collective and individual tragedies and triumphs. Our bond was Palestine. It was a language we dismantled to construct a home." —from The Scar of David
Through the course of this novel, a Palestinian boy grows up as a Jewish Israeli who becomes tangled in a truth he cannot reconcile, and his identity can find no repose but in the temporary anesthetic of alcohol; a would-be suicide bomber is given a name, face and life of a man pushed to incomprehensible limits; an Arab girl of pious and humble beginnings escapes her destiny and lives the "American Dream," which her soul cannot bear; and a nation of destitute refugees living under the general label of "terrorists," emerges in the context of an unredeemed history.