The South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) condemn in the strongest terms the Zionist intimidation campaign waged against author and illustrator Nathi Ngubane and Social Bandit Media, the independent publisher of From the River to the Sea: A Colouring Book, (Children’s book illustrator bombarded with hate messages over ‘River to Sea’ book).
We agree with the colouring book’s creator, Nathi Ngubane, that in the face of the unspeakable genocide of Palestinian people, it is of utmost importance that children in South Africa and across the world learn about the history and culture of Palestine.
It is imperative that parents and educators have tools, like this well-researched and expertly produced publication, to counter the persistent erasure and silencing of Palestinian voices in public discourse.
It is the tragic, but certainly not novel, irony of Zionist propaganda that the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies called for the fascistic censorship of the colouring book and justified their demand for the “immediate cessation of this extremely irresponsible publication” by rejecting “attempts to indoctrinate children”.
The double standards of the demand are almost incomprehensible.
Does the SAJBD not recognise the hypocrisy of accusing a genuine educational project of indoctrination when, in fact, many of our own members were ourselves indoctrinated by Zionist propaganda from a young age, as are so many children to this day in Jewish schools and youth organisations in South Africa and across the world?
In their outcry over the colouring book’s title From the River to the Sea, the Cape SAJBD’s wilfully ignorant and ruthless intimidation campaign joins the sad but vast chorus of misinformation deployed by governments, universities and Zionist bodies globally.
Misinterpreting the slogan is in itself a move of erasure of Palestinian history and political culture, one that is mobilised to stifle pro-Palestinian activism.
In truth, for Palestinians, the long history of the slogan is tied not only to the deep-rootedness of their culture in the various regions, towns and villages of historic Palestine, but also to the widely shared political aspiration of a single democratic state in which all people, Palestinian, Jewish and everybody else, would coexist as equal citizens.
Instead of being censored, Social Bandit Media and Nathi Ngubane must be praised for their courageous commitment to sharing this vision with children and their caregivers, teaching them the all-too-rarely-told true story of Palestinians.
We firmly stand with the artist and publisher and the project, and denounce the Cape SAJBD’s intimidation and unconstitutional call for censorship.
We call for all those who reject erasure and violent intimidation and have the means, to purchase a copy of From the River to the Sea: A Colouring Book.
All proceeds benefit Palestine through Penny Appeal South Africa.
* Anthony Fish Hodgson, Cape Town.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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