The New York Times · New York, New York · 21 April 1982

CP-1982-056

Why Israel Bans Some Arab Books

By Shmuel E. Moyal

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Transcribed from the clipping

A 12-year-old pupil studying in the Gaza district before June 1967 undoubtedly would have encountered in his Egyptian junior high school textbook this sentence: “The Arabs will never cease striving for the destruction of Israel.”

His 10-year-old counterpart in the Golan Heights would have been expected to analyze the syntax of “We shall expel all Jews from the Arab countries” as part of an exercise in a Syrian fifth-grade text titled “Basic Syntax and Spelling.” A Jordanian textbook said that Israel’s God is “bloodthirsty. fickle-minded, harsh, greedy, and is pleased with imposture and deceit.”

The book was “General History — Ancient and Modern Civilization for High School Juniors.” An urgent tasks of the Israeli administration after the six-day war was, therefore, to ensure that such deliberate, malicious incitement originating from countries at war with Israel would no longer be propagated. Censorship is a common practice in countries in a state of war.

In the United States, the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act required the registration of foreign principals engaged in the dissemination of political propaganda. In 1939 and 1940, it became apparent that much Nazi propaganda was being sent to the United States. This propaganda was seized by the Post Office and destroyed.

Supervision of the importation of new books comes under the jurisdiction of Israel’s chief censor, who operates according to necessary criteria. For example, an Arabic-language book published abroad will be banned for distribution in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza district in the following circumstances: 1. It endangers the security of Israel.

Thus, a book titled “The Military Encyclopedia” was banned because, among other things, it described how to assemble an explosive charge. 2. It is published by the Palestine Liberation Organization or expresses support for that organization and its activities. 3. It contains anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, or anti-Semitic propaganda. 4.

It is liable to lead to disturbances of the peace or to violence.

How this transcription was made

Read from the scan by a machine looking at the image of the page, not by optical character recognition and not by a person. The clipping carries no masthead and no dated folio line, so the date recorded here could not be checked against anything printed on the page. Nothing on the page contradicts it.

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