Books by and about Palestinians have been censored in subtle and overt ways for decades, and since Oct. 7, Palestinian authors have seen their book events canceled and are experiencing other forms of discrimination.
The methods of silencing Palestinian books aren’t exactly the same as the ones against books by and about LGBTQIA+ communities and Black people. Instead of being put on lists for removal from schools and libraries, they are less likely to ever make it to the schools and libraries.
“BIPOC and queer books are banned proactively and systematically across the country,” Nora Lester Murad, an author, activist, and educator in Massachusetts, told Prism. “Palestinian books, I would say, are pre-banned, or they receive more localized, ad hoc attacks.”
She explains that the pipeline of soft censorship begins with Palestinian narratives being rejected by agents because they think the story will be hard to sell. It continues with an eventual publisher editing the manuscript to make it more marketable.
“They don’t want to offend people, and because they think it will offend people, they will censor or soft censor Palestinian content and undermine Palestinian self-representation in that process. So fewer books featuring Palestinian narratives, whether by Palestinians or non-Palestinians, are published.”
While books of any marginalized group face this as well, there are very few children’s books by Palestinian voices that mainstream publishers have ever published.
Hannah Moushabeck has faced an uphill battle promoting her debut picture book, “Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine,” published by Chronicle Books in March. Major trade publications did not review her book, she spent her own money on marketing, and her book received multiple one-star reviews on Amazon from unverified purchasers in a practice called “review bombing,” which is also used against LGBTQIA+ and other diverse books.
Moushabeck says she often experiences being told her writing or appearances—from conference panels to social media posts about book recommendations—must be presented opposite a Jewish book or speaker. In planning a school visit that was rescheduled because of the genocide in Gaza, the principal has asked that she instead be in conversation with a rabbi with no connections to the region instead of coming to talk to students about her own experiences being Palestinian as was originally planned.
“I would say that this is shocking except that this has been the proposal for almost every single one of my events,” Moushabeck says. “They want me to present my lived reality as a Palestinian American opposite a rabbi speaking about the harms of antisemitism with the suggestion that my mere existence is antisemitic. I explained how harmful this binary is—how it connotes negative stereotypes about Muslims, Palestinians, and even anti-Zionist Jews. I’m still actively having those arguments to try to just be able to do my author event just like anybody else—talk about my own lived experience, and what it’s like to write a children’s book.”
Moushabeck has been disappointed in the diverse books community’s silence since Israel’s assault on Gaza began.
“They haven’t promoted Palestinian books for fear of backlash, and when they have shared Palestinian books, they have positioned them opposite Jewish books. Not Israeli books—Jewish books. Again suggesting that Palestinians are the antithesis of Jews. This positioning has continued to feed the narrative that this is a religious conflict, not a struggle for land, and that Palestinians are somehow in opposition to Jewishness.”
Murad agrees that the advocates of free speech who work to uplift and protect books by marginalized writers and about topics of race and queerness—including organizations like PEN America and the American Library Association—don’t speak up when it comes to Palestinians. With no organization specifically tracking anti-Palestinian censorship, data remains anecdotal.
Palestinian authors, along with Arab and Muslim authors, are noting their events being canceled.
A school also canceled a visit with Maryland-based author Susan Muaddi Darraj at the last minute. The PTA representative said there was a scheduling conflict, though Darraj and the PTA had spent weeks finalizing details, up to the point of them sending her a map of where to park and Darraj booking a hotel.
“I’ve never had someone so casually just change the plans on me like that, so I was really surprised,” Darraj told Prism. “Basically, I asked for more information, and I simply said I’m really confused about why you’ve canceled this because I did notice that the PTA members I was interacting with had followed me on Instagram … And they basically told me, literally in an email, ‘We don’t owe you any details.’”
Darraj had a contract that was broken but decided not to pursue it legally and, because of the treatment, also does not want to reschedule the appearance.
“It has really alarmed me. I know exactly why they canceled me,” Darraj said, explaining she believes the reason is because she’s Palestinian and has called for a ceasefire. “It was done in this very soft and friendly, casual way. It feels like gaslighting; I feel like they’re trying to make me think it’s not what it is. But given the fact that I’ve heard of many other Palestinian and Arab authors, the same thing happened to them; I know that there’s some kind of campaign to silence us and not allow us in schools.”
Moushabeck also had been invited to an event by the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at a private school in Massachusetts only to have the school visit canceled 24 hours before the November visit. They told her they “aim to provide our students with a diverse array of viewpoints and opportunities for deep discussion; we recognize that this event at this time may not be able to meet this objective on all points.”
On the world stage, the Frankfurt Book Fair postponed the event where they were to award Palestinian author Adania Shibli with a prize for “literature from the developing world.” They said they would hold it instead at a time when there was a “less politically charged atmosphere” and made a statement that “Frankfurt Book Fair stands with complete solidarity on the side of Israel” and “we want to make Jewish and Israeli voices especially visible at the book fair.”
“It seems like the most powerful speakers, whether they’re authors or influencers, are being violently censored and deplatformed right now,” Murad says. She herself has dealt with online and offline harassment to the point of death threats.
Many are coming together around Palestinian books to show support through efforts like Books for Palestine, which recently held an auction of books and book-related items that raised more than $151,000 for organizations supporting Palestinian rights and culture, and international #ReadPalestine Week, organized by Publishers for Palestine, happening Nov. 29 to Dec. 5.
Moushabeck, who is a co-owner of Interlink Publishing, says her family has received hate mail and death threats throughout the 36 years of being a Palestinian-owned publisher putting out books by Palestinian authors. She’s also seen their authors be censored and uninvited from events. While she notes some bookstores canceled their accounts after Interlink’s social media post stating they are proudly Palestinian-owned, she says the publisher has also sold out on most of their Palestinian titles, and sales are soaring.
“Now more than ever, people are looking to books by Palestinians to provide much needed context to the events happening now,” Moushabeck said. “Our books share truths that Western media won’t.”
