🔗 Share this article

Jenan Matari had recently started promoting her debut children's book this season when the event cancellations began. Initially, Chevalier's Books canceled her appearance after what Matari described as external pressure from local community members. A staff member who had booked the event declined to cancel, and the bookstore terminated her employment. Two days later, a second staff member quit in solidarity.

Then came the New Jersey incident. A community bookstore in Montclair was planning to host her next reading but abruptly canceled, stating in an official communication it was "to ensure the safety of our employees and patrons".

Root Cause for These Cancellations

Everything Grows in the grandfather's garden, a picture book about a young Palestinian girl learning about her cultural background through her grandfather's gardening, rooted in his own family customs from Palestine.

Across the country and a couple of months earlier, Safa Suleiman was traveling to the city for her very first educational appearance for her first book. She received a call during her flight: the Arabic and Hindi language school had canceled her visit because of a recent article on her website where she had written about her relatives being lost in military actions in Gaza.

"I never found representation in children's books as a child, and I was about to share my book with young readers who may also lacked representation in children's books either," the author said.

Pattern of Censorship

Such incidents are representative of a surge of censorship that has spread through the United States in recent times, interviews with multiple writers reveal. Event cancellations, book bans, and organized opposition have proliferated through schools, libraries, and bookstores, affecting authors who have either written about Palestinian life, have advocated for Palestinian rights, or been caught in the backlash merely because of their visibly Muslim identity.

Among the affected writers, the trend reminds them of an disturbing and unique situation: that their very existence is considered problematic, and sharing positive narratives that represent their childhood – regardless of content – can trigger coordinated efforts accusing them of seeding antisemitism and division.

Research Findings on Cultural Stories

According to recent analysis by author and educator the scholar, there have been 114 English-language children's books explicitly centering Palestinian narratives available to school-aged children. There has been an increase in recent years – 44% of Palestinian children's books since 1998 were released between 2019 and 2023. However this growth comes from self-publishing, with 32% of new books self-published as traditional publishers remain reluctant gatekeepers.

"It's this effort to reject the people," Matari explained. "Now that we've broken through this publishing world and there's increased representation being published, it's like … we can't stop people from reading your story. So they attempt to prevent people from getting to know you, or connecting the writers with the stories that they write."

"Freedom of speech isn't afforded to all people in this nation, particularly if you're of Palestinian heritage," she continued.

Literary Freedom Awareness

The first full week of October is Banned Books Week in the United States and is a period designed to spotlight restricted narratives. Yet writers focusing on Palestinian themes are finding themselves at the center of a emerging pattern of literary censorship, though the books being challenged don't advocate political positions or encourage division. They tell simple stories of gardens and cultural symbols, of young people exploring personal identity and cultural language, of family traditions maintained across generations, leading authors to realize that their mere presence that seems to be the provocation.

"Beyond separating us from our homeland and from our people," the author said, "currently there are attempts to disconnect us from our narratives."

Legislative Actions and Legal Measures

What started with angry emails and last-minute cancellations is also becoming incorporated into government regulations. On 7 October, the state's leadership the official approved a legislative package as legislation designed to combat prejudice and religious discrimination in educational settings. One new law creates an office of civil rights and an antisemitism prevention coordinator, and requires districts to examine and take corrective action when "problematic material is used in classrooms or staff training".

The concern present in the community of youth writers is that the vague language could be used to label their publications and their narratives as discriminatory, providing state officials regulatory justification to continue restricting Palestinian narratives from schools, and perhaps see these restrictions expand in other states and professional settings.

Author Experiences of Restrictions

Earlier this month, Hannah Moushabeck received a call about an upcoming speaking engagement at North Carolina State University in the city, where she had been asked to speak about her book her cultural narrative and the restriction efforts against it. Institutional officials told her that her book violated the state's compelled speech and neutrality law because it "failed to present two sides to the story". Moushabeck could participate in the appearance, officials told her, but she was prohibited from reading from her publication.

However, this wasn't the first experience with censorship this author had to endure. Moushabeck said she's had five visits cancelled since 2023 and the threats escalated to security issues at her nephew's elementary school in Amherst, Massachusetts previously. "I had to arrive at the school at six o'clock and enter via the rear entrance with a protection detail," Moushabeck explained. An acquaintance joined her for extra security while school security and police remained on standby. "I recall having to do my school visit and keep a smile on my face and keep incredibly calm, because I wanted to avoid my nephew to witness that we were at risk."

Additional Cases of Restrictions

At another institution, a Quaker school in the city, an author was scheduled for an full-day appearance to launch her book Sister Friend – a tale about relationships between a African American child and a peer who practices her faith. A couple days before the October 2023 appearance, school officials declared a postponement.

"Officials believed that in the time that we were in, it was a safety precaution," the author recalled. Subsequently was an extended period of rescheduling without firm dates, ending with cancellation in February 2024 after approximately Jewish parents requested the institution remain "a secure environment for Jewish students".

"It seemed the scrutiny was on me as soon as they realized that, well, this is a writer of particular background and she said something about Palestine," the author, who wears a hijab, explained. "There's pressure to demonstrate that you're not promoting of being an prejudiced if you have any kind of pro-Palestinian commentary. Even just saying, 'This resource to support children' – that is considered controversial."

Online Consequences

Another writer faced similar targeting previously when two of her planned school visits were called off, one in the Pennsylvania district just days before the event.

The author, who creates young adult novels and picture books, was scheduled to discuss her work when parents began flooding the institution with objections after seeing event information. However the content of her work {wasn't the issue|wasn