Iranian-born author and publisher Golbarg Bashi has issued a statement earlier in November, opening up about criticism and death threats she received after publishing her book P is for Palestine: A Palestine Alphabet Book.
"A small but very loud minority have accused my book of very serious but false charges. It is important for me to note, once again, that their disproportionate backlash against my book and my person (resulting in death threats, devaluing of my social-impact business) was initially to the mere title of the book," wrote Bashi.
After releasing the book, Dr. Bashi said she suffered from racial discrimination
"My sense of moral responsibility emerged in those refugee camps not among the self-proclaimed powerful neighborhoods of New York City who racially-profile me, incite hatred and violence against my person and my social-impact start-up, and issue edicts to boycott and shut down bookstores for having dared to sell world's first English language alphabet book on Palestine," she added.
Many people had quite a lot to say about this book, criticizing its topic and launch in New York City.
According to the New York Post, Jewish mothers were infuriated with the book, labeling it as plain "anti-Semitic propaganda".
"You must have known you would be igniting a political firestorm by posting that in the hopes of drumming up sales for your ridiculous book ... It’s disgraceful," a Facebook post read.
Book Culture, an independent bookstore in NYC, was forced to issue an apology. The statement
"We regret that we did not fully appreciate the political or communal ramifications of the children's book P is for Palestine by Dr Golbarg Bashi, nor did we anticipate the pain and distress it has caused in our community. We now understand these much better. We oppose terrorism or other forms of violence perpetrated against Israeli civilians during the intifada or thereafter," the statement read.
P is for Palestine is a joint product between Dr. Bashi and Golrokh Nafisi, a globally acclaimed illustrator. The book is described by the author as "an alphabetic journey to Palestine" where B stands for Bethlehem and I stands for intifada.
The book was crowd-sourced on LaunchGood.com, a popular fundraising platform. It is reported that the book's initial 2,000 copies were sold out upon its publishing in November and people are awaiting the second edition in spring 2018.