LETTER: Library Should Resist Effort to Remove Book on Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

(Note: The Watertown Board of Library Trustees will meet Thursday, July 31 at 7 p.m. at Watertown Middle School. The agenda includes a statement of policy in response to feedback on the suggested summer reading list read by the Board Chair.)

Dear  Kim Long (Hewitt), Library Director and Board of Trustees, 

I’m writing about the pressure the library faces to remove the children’s book, “A Map for Falasteen: A Palestinian Child’s Search for Home.” I hope the library resists this pressure and lets parents and children make their own choices of reading material and draw their own conclusions.

This issue matters greatly to me for two reasons, my connections with Israel-Palestine and my connections with Watertown. I have been many times to the West Bank and Gaza and most parts of Israel. To deny Israeli residents — some 20% of Israeli citizens living in Israel are Palestinian — recognition thru a map is a serious abuse of dignity and reality, weakening the sense of self. And when children in our country are not allowed to learn how the absence of a map of the territory of another people degrades the population is another insult to truth. Imagine, some authority decides to remove all reference to Watertown on regional maps and along with that deny the existence of Watertown people. What effect would this have on Watertown’s residents?

Secondly, I have a long personal connection with the Watertown library, living in Watertown from 1973 to 1989 at 14 Center Street, once married to LB still living in Watertown, and brought first our children KD and JS regularly to the library and now LB brings our grandchildren there.

For many years I was a library volunteer, managing the free public darkroom. And I’ve had many photography exhibits in the library. What if I were to apply for an exhibit of my Palestine photographs. What would be the library’s response if some parties resist this, even tho free speech is one of our most treasured national rights?

— Skip Schiel
Cambridge, Mass.