Israel’s attack on literature should not be normalised

Palestinian-related literature in colonised Palestine is in the crosshairs of Israel’s ongoing annihilation, as the recent raid on the Educational Bookshop in Occupied East Jerusalem portrayed. The attack should prompt the West into some profound introspection.

The bookshop has been described as high profile and a stop for many visitors, including diplomats. By raiding the bookshop and arresting its owners, Israel is sending a message to Palestinians – either they stay hidden or face being vanquished. To the rest of the world, what does the raid mean? That even their reading, in colonised Palestine, can be subject to Israel’s colonial violence.

Israeli media reported that the police conducting the raid had to use Google Translate to check the content, and took what they did not like. Officers, it was reported, “uncovered several books with inciting material that contain nationalistic Palestinian themes.”

A look at several photos depicting the bookshop’s interior shows many books published by international publishers. Israel spares nothing – something which its backers in the West should heed for future reference. The action targeted the bookshop and its owners, but books are a collaborative effort. Which means, by default, that the violation extends to a far wider circle – one that encompasses any sliver of support for, or collaboration with, Palestinians’ politics, history, memory and narratives.

Palestinian literature, and literature about Palestine, stands in sharp contrast to the politics of oblivion. It is through literature that much of Palestine is disseminated globally, through books that the world has the opportunity to understand the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle and Palestinian lives. Beyond the abbreviated versions that mainstream media sanitises and disseminates, careful not to antagonise Israel, Palestinian humanity is found within literature.

We connect through reading, build an understanding, make the necessary links between history and the present. We see Palestine from various perspectives, ranging from historic nostalgia to the colonised present, what led to it and how the people are affected. How the world conspired to create the last colonial stronghold with absolute impunity. Through books, Palestinians can articulate within books what the West has deprived them of and, therefore, the space that books provide must be protected.

Ironically, Israel has given more than enough reason as to why Palestinian-related literature should be protected. The Israeli genocide in Gaza is one recent example – the Edward Said Public Library was one of the safe spaces targeted and destroyed, as were universities, schools and cultural centres.

What Israel did in Occupied East Jerusalem was an act that the international community can pass off as one of its routine raids – none of which should have been normalised. But the intent behind it is clear – Israel wages war on anything that does not support its colonial narrative and its biggest opponent will remain the colonised Palestinian people.

The West, however, would do well to keep in mind that every Israeli action will ultimately have wider repercussions. Israel’s attack on the Educational Bookshop and the confiscation of some books is an attack on Palestinian expression and also an attack on anyone wishing to access such literature from the bookshop. In the grand scheme of political complicity, a bookshop is the least of world leaders’ concerns. For the people, who far outnumber any government, a bookshop holds significance. For Israel to succeed at erasing Palestinians, literature is a primary target. For the rest of the world, it should serve as a warning. Publishers across the world have published Palestinian literature. How far can Israel dictate its security narrative? The more Palestine is marginalised, the more Palestine is the link to everything.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250211-israels-attack-on-literature-should-not-be-normalised/