‘P is for Palestine’ Kids’ Book Outrages New Jersey Parents

Children’s library hours used to be sweet moments when gray haired librarians read books to wiggly kids sitting in a semi-circle along the floor – books like “Goodnight Moon” and “The Velveteen Rabbit.”  One common type of book used the alphabet to teach the sounds of letter.  “A is for Apple, B is for Boy,” and so forth.
 
But a recent book by a history professor at Pace University, Iranian-born Dr. Golbarg Bashi, attempts to teach much more.  In her new book “P is for Palestine,” she introduces children to Palestinian culture.  Bashi’s educational company attempts  “to promote progressive early childhood education, diversifying children’s literature” and empower kids through what she describes as “playful gender and race-conscious pedagogy,” according to the website Haaretz.
 
The book has an entry for every letter.  For example, “D is for Dabkeh,” “E is for Eid.”

 But the entry that outraged Jewish parents was the one for the letter I. “I is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, if you’re a kid or a grownup!” the words read, superimposed over an image of barbed wire.
 
Haaretzreports that parents were not happy with this:
 
Pro-Israeli parents were particularly incensed by the “I is for Intifada” page in the book, with one woman suggesting that if Bashi wanted to promote diversity, “I” could have been for “Israel.” Others called the book thinly veiled propaganda targeting young children’s minds, with another woman suggesting “B is for Brainwashing.” 
 
The Times of Israel reports that, “Critics said the page glorified the violence that characterized the two separate Palestinian ‘uprisings’ of the late 1980s and early 2000s.”
 
Bashi denies any such thing. How dare you accuse….  Oops!  Turns out, it is reasonable to accuse this woman of pushing a certain agenda.  Turns out, her husband has been posting anti-Semitic comments on social media about Jared Kushner:

Bashi’s husband, Hamid Dabashi, also a Columbia professor, has also recently been accused of posting anti-Semitic comments on Facebook about Jared Kushner.

Dabashi referred to “Jared Kushner’s Zionist kins [sic]” who “kill and rob Palestinians,” and described the Jewish White House adviser as a “creature.”

A library in New Jersey — the Highland Park Public Library– had scheduled a reading of this book, but wisely postponed the May 18 event:
 
Following complaints by members of the Central Jersey town’s Jewish community that the book promotes violence, the library issued a statement saying the matter had been referred to the library’s board of trustees, which “will take it up at its next regularly scheduled meeting” on May 20.

 
Image Credit: Screen Shot from Above Embedded YouTube

Hat Tip: Times of Israel and Haaretz