‘They don’t look Jewish to me’: Behind the scenes panic at the Toronto Public Library after complaint from pro-Israel group

 

Internal emails obtained through freedom of information reveal that library staff worked quickly to remove a display featuring Gaza poem

Toronto Public Library emails cast doubt on the organization’s previous explanation for removing a Palestinian writer’s poem from a display, a move critics called an attack on free expression. 

B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish organization that regularly targets both mainstream and obscure critics of Israel, claimed in April that their complaint prompted library staff to remove writer Refaat Alareer’s poem “If I Must Die” from a display at the Main Street branch in Toronto’s east end. 

Library spokesperson Linda Hazzan denied this, telling Ricochet in a statement that staff discussed the display prior to B’nai Brith Canada’s complaint.

“There are allegations that TPL has censored its collections by removing these elements from the display based on pressure from a community group. This is inaccurate,” Hazzan said in an email at the time. “The poem was removed from the display because it is not available in our collections.”

Internal emails released by a TPL spokesperson to Ricochet, and correspondence obtained through a freedom of information request, reveal Hazzan and other senior staff discussed the display before and after B’nai Brith Canada’s complaint, and appeared to work quickly to address the organization’s concerns. In a message to other senior staff sent one day before the group complained, Hazzan mentioned Alareer’s poem and expressed concern about a backdrop listing people killed in Israel and Palestine.  (more...)

‘They don’t look Jewish to me’: Behind the scenes panic at the Toronto Public Library after complaint from pro-Israel group