Scottish municipality bans Israeli books

A Scottish municipality has banned from its libraries books by Israeli authors, along with booksthat were printed or published in Israel.

The West Dunbartonshire Council, consisting of towns and villages west of Glasgow, ordered new books by Israeli authors to be banned from the council’s libraries, according to reports.

The ban reportedly was ordered after last year’s raid by Israeli commandoes on a ship attempting to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza that led to the death of nine Turkish nationals.

The ban followed a decision made two-and-a-half years ago following the Gaza war to boycott goods produced in Israel. According to that law, the council and all its public bodies are forbidden to sell goods that originated from Israel.

HAMAS CHARTER

Article Eleven: The Strategy of Hamas: Palestine is an Islamic Waqf
The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it. No Arab country nor the aggregate of all Arab countries, and no Arab King or President nor all of them in the aggregate, have that right, nor has that right any organization or the aggregate of all organizations, be they Palestinian or Arab, because Palestine is an Islamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day of Resurrection. Who can presume to speak for all Islamic Generations to the Day of Resurrection? This is the status [of the land] in Islamic Shari’a, and it is similar to all lands conquered by Islam by force, and made thereby Waqf lands upon their conquest, for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection.

A West Dunbartonshire Council spokesman told the UK Express recently that the boycott is not retrospective and that no books have been removed from libraries.
The council told the Express that 10 other councils had agreed to join the boycott.

The Scottish city Dundee also issued a recommendation to boycott goods produced in Israel, but it was set aside after city legal advisers said it was likely illegal under European Union law. The city instead will distribute posters throughout the city asking its residents not to buy Israeli goods and place a special sticker on products that are made in Israel.

HAMAS CHARTER:

Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah’s promise whatever time it might take. The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! This will not apply to the Gharqad, which is a Jewish tree (cited by Bukhari and Muslim).

“A place that boycotts books is not far from a place that burns them,” Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, told Ynet last Tuesday.

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor called the banning of Israeli books and the marking of Israeli products in Scotland “eerily reminiscent of darker times and perhaps there is a level of hatred that connects them.

“While those behind the boycott will claim that this is not antisemitic, targetting only the Jewish state, a democracy, while ignoring serial human-rights abusing nations tells us that this is indeed antisemitic in intent and in effect,” Kantor said in a statement released last Tuesday. “This demonstrates how far ‘respectable antisemitism’ has come. Clearly it has become acceptable to boycott and discriminate against Jews, as long as there is a thin veneer of anti-Zionism, which purportedly covers the hateful act.”

He called on Britain and Scotland to pronounce the boycott illegal

Related articles

• Scottish municipality bans Israeli books (jta.org)
• Hamas, Fatah and the UN: The Fix Is In (biggovernment.com)
• Hamas founder remembered in new museum (sfgate.com)
• Peace in Our Time? (papundits.wordpress.com)
• “The Left Is Decreasingly Relevant to Politics of Israel” and related posts (israpundit.com)
• Turks Sailing Again for Gaza Chart Collision Course With Israel (businessweek.com)
• Scotland’s Shame (possil.wordpress.com)