This article was co-published with LA Public Press, an independent, non-profit newsroom whose journalism interrogates systems of power, while supporting those trying to build more equitable and resilient communities.
Three weeks before the Los Angeles Public Library was scheduled to host a Palestine-focused author talk, a staff librarian wrote to administrators to say the two invited guest speakers had “strong terrorist ties” and “virulently antisemitic views.” She also accused the librarians hosting the event of having “deeply antisemitic views” and showing “racist behavior to me and others in our Heritage group.”
The event was canceled three days later.
In her email, a copy of which was included in a batch of internal library emails obtained by LA Public Press under a California Public Records Act request, the librarian included links about the guests, Palestinian writer Jenan Matari and Jewish American writer Nora Lester Murad, calling them evidence of their “anti-Jewish hate.”
The librarian declined to comment on the email to LA Public Press.
The links included an article from the conservative Washington Free Beacon, which accused Matari of “[praising] Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre and [writing] anti-Semitic social media posts.” In the emails, library administrators singled out two Facebook posts from the story, one from Oct. 7, 2023, in which Matari wrote “RESIST,” and one from the next day, in which the article said Matari called for “more violence,” by referring to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, as a “Palestinian uprising.”
In her Facebook post, Matari wrote, “May this Palestinian uprising be the push needed for the dominos of colonialism to fall from every corner of this world,” and, “May we witness an indigenous uprising and reclamation of our lands on a global scale. Our people are the protectors of life and land.”
After the attack, Israel launched a genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza; the Gaza Ministry of Health estimates that more than 72,000 people have died.
LA Public Press reviewed more than 200 pages of the email discussions between library staff and administrators. This batch of emails reveals for the first time a staff librarian’s objections to hosting Matari and Murad. They also show that the posts by Matari identified by library administrators in November as justifying the cancellation were the same posts reported in the Washington Free Beacon article that the staff librarian pointed to in her email to administrators.
In December, more than 100 library employees signed a letter obtained by the LA Reporter asking for an apology for cancelling the event, which had been set to take place Dec. 6. Since then, the controversy over the cancellation has continued to grow. Several national legal groups wrote to the library late last year and earlier this year accusing library administrators of censorship. More than 7,000 protest letters have been sent to the library.
Zoha Khalili, senior managing attorney at Palestine Legal, wrote a letter on behalf of Palestine Legal and 18 other organizations arguing the library violated both authors’ constitutional rights by cancelling the event. She said the library’s decision could have an impact on Palestinians who might now think “the library is not necessarily a place that is for them in the way that it is for other members of their community.”
Matari and Murad each said library administrators ignored multiple requests for a meeting, which the authors said they were entitled to under their contracts. LA Public Press reviewed Matari and Murad’s Memorandums of Agreement with the library, which said in the event of a conflict between the speaker and a library contact, a “conflict resolution meeting” would be held within two weeks of the conflict occurring. The MOAs also said that the agreements would go into effect when signed by the library and the guest speaker. They were not signed by a library administrator.
The emails obtained by LA Public Press show that an administrator disputed this requirement, saying, “I don’t have a contract to discuss with them.” In the same thread, he said no administrator had signed the forms or reviewed them. A librarian working on the event told the administrator they were seeking a supervisor signature when they “were told to pause our work on this program.”
Neither the administrator nor the librarian who initially organized the event responded to a request for comment.
A month after the cancellation, as the library received calls and emails protesting the cancellation, City Librarian John Szabo wrote a letter to staff saying the library needed to remain “nonpartisan and apolitical.” The letter, which was provided to LA Public Press in response to its public records request, also said that “all Library programs must also align with our core values, including welcoming everyone and affirming that all people have dignity and deserve respect.” He wrote that Matari’s posts related to Oct. 7 did not fulfill those requirements.
Matari told LA Public Press that by canceling the event, the library showed that Palestinians and their stories are not welcome at the library.
Murad has published several online posts and academic articles about the censorship of Palestinian narratives in libraries and children’s books. She said canceling the talk sends a message to children, like, “‘ Oh, I heard those are terrorist people… those are antisemitic people. I’m not gonna get their book … [or] invite them to my school.’”
Matari and Murad have each written books for children and young adults about the Palestinian experience. They were invited to talk about their work as part of Read Palestine Week, an annual program in which bookstores and libraries worldwide plan displays and events featuring Palestinian writers and stories. The volunteer teen council at the Central Library’s Teen’Scape Department voted to organize the program.
In a written comment to LA Public Press, LA Public Library spokesperson Lauren Skinner said administrators cancelled the event after a review of multiple social media posts made by Matari, which she reiterated as not aligning with the library’s core values. Skinner added that both authors’ books are available in the library catalog and said the library “welcome[s] opportunities to celebrate Palestinian authors, literature, and culture, and we look forward to future programs.”
Skinner declined to comment on any contracts with Matari or Murad or about the staff librarian’s email accusing the authors and the staff organizing their event of antisemitism.
Asked about the staff librarian’s accusations, Matari said Palestinians are often accused of antisemitism “when we literally just show what is happening to our people.”
“It’s so overboard that it diminishes what actual antisemitism is,” she said.
Matari provided a redacted email thread showing that library staffers asked her about the posts linked in the Washington Free Beacon article. She responded that they were about colonialism and Zionism, referring to the ideological movement to establish a nationalist Jewish state, and that she doesn’t “conflate Judaism and Zionism.”
In her email response, Matari added that if people understand the context around Palestine as a “settler colony,” then Oct. 7, “becomes a clear example of oppressed peoples carrying out their international human right to resist an oppressor/occupier by any means necessary,” rather than Western media’s portrayal of it as an “unprovoked attack.”
In another email included in the batch of emails LA Public Press received from the library, Matari wrote that she stands by all her content. “As a Palestinian, my content doesn’t ‘both sides’ a genocide,” she said.
Matari told LA Public Press the library sided with Zionists over two people telling Palestinian stories, an action she said amounts to anti-Palestinian racism. Anti-Palestinian racism is a term coined by the Arab-Canadian Lawyers Association in 2022 that encompasses “attacking, smearing, silencing or stereotyping of Palestinians.” An example includes “smearing Palestinians with tropes such as being antisemitic.”
Multiple legal organizations have written letters to the library about the cancellation; a letter from the National Coalition Against Censorship and ACLU Southern California accused the library of “likely” violating the First Amendment.
“The authors’ personal views — no matter how disagreeable some LAPL staff or audiences may find them — are constitutionally protected from LAPL censorship,” said the letter, which was signed by the director of arts and cultural advocacy of the NCAC and the chief counsel of ACLU Southern California.
The letter also addressed Szabo’s claim about the library needing to remain “nonpartisan and apolitical,” saying that if that means not inviting anyone with strong political opinions, then “it would be hard pressed to find a single author to participate in its programming.”
The letter then pointed out that the library has invited authors who have expressed political opinions, including Sarah Sassoon, “a vocal supporter of Israel who has echoed the idea that the anti-Zionist movement is inherently antisemitic.”
Khalili of Palestine Legal said incidents like this show the need for clear policies, in which the community understands the steps involved in organizing and signing off on a library event.
“ I think it can make it a lot easier for people to make decisions based off of their own personal biases if those decisions aren’t being made in a clear and open manner,” she said.
Skinner, the LA Public Library spokesperson, said that in deciding which events to host, library staff factor resource allocation, trust, and “using our spaces in a manner consistent with our mission, city standards, and our commitment to city residents.” She didn’t elaborate on the processes behind such decisions.
Both authors are now weighing their options. Matari said that among other measures, the library should hire Palestinians to address “the false equivalency of being pro-Palestinian as antisemitism,” an equivalency she said is present in many organizations.
“ They need to start hiring Palestinians to correct that danger and to correct the violence that that’s caused,” she said.
Editor’s Note by LAPP: This story withholds the names of several city employees. This decision is based on safety considerations and the relative public roles of those involved.
