Skip to content
The World Can't Wait
Menu
  • Home
  • Events
  • About
    • About World Can’t Wait
      • History of World Can’t Wait
  • Projects
    • War Criminals Watch
    • We Are Not Your Soldiers!
    • Fire John Yoo
    • Sudan’s Struggle
  • Media
    • Audio
      • Video
    • Public Svc. Announcements
    • Press & Press Releases
      • Press Releases
      • Press Coverage
    • Photos
  • Take Action
    • Materials in English
    • Materials in Spanish
    • What You Can Do Now
    • Donate
    • More Resources
      • News & Analysis
        • Alternet
        • Antiwar.com
        • Black Agenda Report
        • Common Dreams
        • CounterPunch
        • Dissident Voice
        • Media Matters
        • Next Left Notes
        • OpEd News
        • Project Censored
        • Raw Story
        • Revolution Newspaper
        • Truthdig
        • Truthout
      • Anti-War
        • Afghans for Peace
        • Courage to Resist
        • Drone Warfare Awareness
        • Iraq Vets Against the War
        • Peace of the Action
        • Veterans for Peace
        • Voices for Creative Non-Violence
        • War is a Crime
      • Anti-Torture/Detention
        • Andy Worthington
        • Close Guantanamo
        • Free Detainees
        • Int’l Justice Network
        • No More Guantánamos
        • Religious Campaign Against Torture
        • Witness Against Torture
      • Political Repression
        • Bill of Rights Defense Committee
        • Center for Constitutional Rights
        • Committee to Stop FBI Repression
        • Drop the Charges on Gregory!
        • National Lawyers Guild
        • No Separate Justice
        • Project Salam
        • Stop Mass Incarceration
      • Women’s Rights/Theocracy
        • Defend Science
        • Feministing
        • RH Reality Check
        • Stop Patriarchy
        • Talk 2 Action
        • Theocracy Watch
        • Walk for Choice
      • Environment
        • Bill McKibben
        • Climate Connections
        • Enviros Against War
        • Grist
        • Tar Sands Action
  • En Español
Menu

Library Rethinks Decision to Disinvite Noted Palestinian Scholar

Posted on August 6, 2014
Share:
World Can’t Wait — Chicago | August 6, 2014

Ali Abunimah’s reading of “The Battle for Justice in Palestine” will occur as planned on Monday, August 11 at 7 pm.

Cheers!

To Neighbors for Peace, for standing up to the Evanston (IL) Public Library (EPL) when their scheduled event featuring author Ali Abunimah was suddenly canceled.

Ali Abunimah is the Chicago-based author of a new book, “The Struggle for Justice in Palestine,” and his website, Electronic Intifada, is a widely read and respected source of news and analysis, diaries from Palestine, and reports on arts and activism on behalf of the people of Palestine around the world.

For all those reasons, it was a shock when the library simply removed the event from its online calendar last Friday (Aug. 1) and sent a tweet announcing it would be “rescheduled,” not bothering to inform the speaker or the sponsoring organizations. Neighbors sounded the alarm and mobilized broadly for people to call the library’s director, Karen-Danczak Lyons, and the American Library Association (whose headquarters are in Chicago) to demand that the event be reinstated – and it was!

In the midst of the U.S.-backed Israeli slaughter in Gaza, the cancelation of such a prominent voice for justice for Palestine was unacceptable, especially coming from a library. On top of that, Evanston is a suburb on Chicago’s northern border that is the home of Northwestern University and prides itself on a liberal, open-minded tradition. The EPL’s own mission statement says that it “promote[s] the development of independent, self-confident, and literate citizens through the provision of open access to cultural, intellectual, and informational resources.”

Dale Lehmann, Neighbors for Peace, at their press conference Aug. 5, 2014What reason did EPL give for this cancelation? In an email to Ali Abunimah, a library employee said that his reading had to be canceled because the library had failed to confirm the booking of a pro Israel speaker in order to ensure “balance.”  Lyons herself denied ever canceling the event, saying they were only trying to reschedule but cited as her reason for that the library wanted to arrange “other credible speakers” on the topic.

In its statement opposing the cancelation, the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) asks: “Would the Evanston Public Library insist on inviting a member of the Ku Klux Klan to present the ‘other side’ of a presentation by Cornel West?” As Ali Abunimah wrote in his response to the reinstatement of his reading, “Yes, this should be an inclusive conversation and an urgent one, but let’s not pretend anything can justify or ‘balance’ the horrifying facts of this massacre.”

We need more such refusal to accept the unacceptable and more uncompromising mobilizations to demand a platform for critical thinking and the truth if we are ever going to stop these crimes committed by or at the behest of our government!

Maha Jarad, Palestinian-American and former head of the Arab American Action Network, speaking at the N4P press conference

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Because humanity & the planet come first...
store
Don’t stop… Don’t conciliate... Don’t accommodate... Don’t collaborate... and support World Can't Wait.

Sign up for email

Stop FBI Repression
Know your rights
If An Agent Knocks

About

World Can't Wait mobilizes people living in the United States to stand up and stop war on the world, repression and torture carried out by the US government. We take action, regardless of which political party holds power, to expose the crimes of our government, from war crimes to systematic mass incarceration, and to put humanity and the planet first.

Read More

Subscribe to E-Newsletter

Contact World Can't Wait

TOPICS

  • Afghanistan & Pakistan
  • Covert Drone War
  • Crimes are Crimes
  • Culture of Bigotry
  • Environment
  • G.I. Resistance
  • Haiti
  • Immigrants
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Libya
  • Mass Incarceration
  • Obama
  • Occupy
  • Palestine
  • Police State Repression
  • Real History Lessons
  • Reproductive Rights
  • Reports on Protest & Resistance
  • Theocracy
  • Torture
  • Wikileaks
  • Calls to Action
  • The Expanding War on the World

Projects

  • War Criminals Watch
  • We Are Not Your Soldiers
  • Get Involved

  • Donate
  • Download filters, stickers and posters
  • More ways to get involved
  • ©2025 The World Can't Wait | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme