|
 There
have been calls from Jewish pressure groups for the latest
book by Elizabeth Laird, 'A Little Piece of Ground', to
be withdrawn from sale.
The book is a fictional account of how a 12-year-old called
Karim - whose family's olive groves have been confiscated
by Israeli settlers - copes when his father is stripped
and humiliated by Israeli troops.
Macmillan, who publish the book in the UK, have received
several demands for it to be pulped with most of the attacks
on Laird coming from North America.
In Canada Phyllis Simon, the co-owner of the Canadian children's
bookshop 'Kidsbooks', made the first complaint to the publisher
and has described the book as a "blatant piece of hate-fomenting
propaganda."
It is understood that other complaints have come from Jewish
pressure groups.
The New Zealand-born novelist wrote her book after visiting
Ramallah as part of a British Council scheme to encourage
writing for children. She denies the story is anti-Israeli.
"I did expect comeback, but to say that any criticism
of Israel is anti-Semitic is doing Israel a disservice.
This is an important story that should be told. It shows
a child under military occupation. It's terrible for the
occupiers, and terrible for the occupied. I hope I have
shown how awful it is for the soldiers too," said Laird,
who has lived in Beirut and Iraq and is also married to
David McDowall, a journalist and writer specializing in
the Middle East.
"There is already a great deal of understanding of
Israel. All western people have felt sympathetic to Israel,
for good reason often; and I don't think that should stop.
The voice of the Palestinian child, on the other hand, has
not been heard."
There have been voices of support for the book, most notably
from the current Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo.
He urged parents to encourage their 11 to 14-year-olds
to buy it. "Read it, and we know what it is to feel
oppressed, to feel fear every day. And we should know it,
and our children should know it, for this is how much of
the world lives," he said.
|
