(Bridgewater Courier News) A library event featuring the children’s book “P is for Palestine” and its author has been shelved … for now.
Author Golbarg Bashi was scheduled to read her alphabet-based Palestinian culture book on May 19 at the Highland Park Public Library. But after the event was publicized and several residents took issue, believing the 2017 self-published book featuring letters of the English alphabet standing for certain Palestinian words is anti-Semitic and promotes violence, the event was postponed pending discussion at a June Board of Trustees meeting.
“My First Amendment rights have been broken,” Bashi said. “This is an illegal act. It has been done at an American library. American librarians have allowed a group to break the First Amendment — a violent group. Zionists based in that neighborhood. People who adhere to the ideology of Zionism. It is very important between Judaism and Zionism. These are two different things.”
