The 11th Palestine International Book Fair, which began Thursday, had been expecting 500 publishers, mostly from across the Arab world.
Israel had other ideas.
The Jordanian News Agency Petra reported at the weekend that Jordanian and other Arab publishers had been stopped at the border, despite their shipments of books having been previously approved and delivered to the grounds of the Palestinian National Library in Ramallah venue.
Palestinian Culture Minister Ihab Bisiso had previously said,
The establishment of the exhibition in the National Library represents the addition of a new space for Palestinian culture. We wanted to launch the library’s work through this international book fair.
The Palestine IBF runs from May 3 through 13, and includes the launch of the Palestine Film Festival on May 6 and the distribution of the Palestine Cultural Forum Awards on May 10.
It’s not clear yet if any Arab attendees for the film festival have been impacted by the Israeli ban.
It’s not a good habit. Very Negative attitude to the Booklovers.
We all should aware about freedom of speech. But nobody cares.