Hamas’ book-banning sign of fanaticism, says Lapid
Israeli figures respond to PA’s decision to pull children’s schoolbook from shelves for ‘mild sexual innuendo’. Yosef Lapid: Fanatics always meet in service of evil. Author A. B. Yehoshua, however, less scandalized
“Hamas’ destruction of schoolbooks only proves that the world’s most extreme radicals always meet in the service of the kingdom of evil,” former minister Yosef Lapid told Ynet Monday night.
Lapid was responding to the Palestinian Authority Education Ministry’s confiscation and destruction of an anthology of Palestinian folklore for children owing to “mild sexual innuendo”.
Lapid charged that all fundamentalist faiths censor books in general and children’s and adolescent’s books in particular.
“It reached a peak when the Nazis burned books by Jewish authors in Nazi Germany. It is just one expression of the religious fanaticism of the radical Islam which Hamas subscribes to. We must hope that the Palestinian public rises up against this blow to the fundamental rights of children to learn about life,” he said.
Famed Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua believed that the PA Education Ministry’s move did not constitute an exceptional incident.
“Books were also confiscated and destroyed in the United States in the quarrel over Darwinian theory,” Yehoshua said.
“This is the continuation of battles over education between educated and uneducated peoples. The whole Arab world is struggling beneath the wave of fundamentalism and traditional outlooks.
“The fight against Islamic fanaticism exists in all Arab countries, including Palestinian society, whose state of distress will lead them to deteriorate further towards fundamentalism,” Yehoshua said.
The author believes that despite the associations that book-burning raises, Israel must not get involved or express its opinion in internal Palestinian conflicts.
“It is best we keep quiet because the moment we speak, they’ll say – even the Zionists support this book. Trust them to wage the liberal battle themselves. Apparently within the education system a battle is going on between ideology and moderate traditional views.
Yehoshua said it was more important for Israel to supervise its own behavior than to interfere with Palestinian affairs. “It’s best that we take care of making sure olive trees are not uprooted, settlers aren’t violent (against Palestinians) and people aren’t expelled. There are much more important topics in which we can be of help.”
Khaled Mahameed, lawyer and founder of Nazareth’s Holocaust museum said that in this case, the saying, “Where they burn books they will later burn people,” is not fitting.
“The burning of the books here is not for racist or nationalistic motives, but to maintain Islamic values on a matter which is taboo in Palestinian society. There are things that cannot be compared,” he said.
“All the same, burning books doesn’t allow people to think. When they decide for you what read and what to think – that’s not good. In this case I hope the destruction of the books will bring to the fore the sensitive issue of sexuality in Palestinian society,” Mahameed noted.
