Palestinian Author Supportive of October 7 Attacks Gets New Book Deal Amid Concerns Antisemitism Has Notched Up to Normal

The re-release of two books by a colleague of the New York City mayor’s wife, a Palestinian writer who over the weekend lamented “holocaust whining,” is being celebrated despite warnings about the normalization of antisemitism and pressure to stop the presses.Simon & Schuster imprint, Atria Books, is re-issuing two novels by Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin and The Blue Between Sky and Water, in September. The Palestinian writer, defiant in her description of Jews — both in public and her literary work — as “ghouls without souls,” “jackals,” “vultures,” and “demonic,” wrote the tomes in 2006 and 2015, respectively. She has sold more than one million copies of the books, which have been translated in as many as 30 languages.Ms. Abulhawa, who has been praised for her role in a highly watched November 2024 Oxford Union debate that overwhelmingly passed a motion that Israel is an “apartheid state responsible for genocide,” also celebrated the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. She called the largest purge of Jews since the Holocaust “spectacular.”In her weekend online rant, Ms. Abulhawa blasted Jews for referencing the evolution of World War II after it was reported that Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not include any Jewish legal scholars, law professors, or judges on an 18-member judicial advisory committee even though Jews represent 52 percent of the city’s legal professionals. “Europe’s holocaust has lost its meaning to the point that the whole world is sick of hearing about it. These clowns invoke that genocide with every perceived slight,” Ms. Abulhawa posted on X, responding to a post about how the Holocaust didn’t start with concentration camps but with the exclusion of Jews from everyday society.“There is an extreme overrepresentation of Jews in every branch of government, media, and culture, but we have to listen to more holocaust whining because ONE damn judicial panel didn’t contain enough Jews,” Ms. Abulhawa wrote, effectively confirming the post’s history lesson by adding, “Seriously, there’s something terribly wrong with them, and if moderate Jews don’t effectively reign in these extremists, it’s not going to end well for anyone.”“Claiming Jews ‘whine’ about the Holocaust. Repeating antisemitic tropes about Jewish control. Thinly veiled threats against Jews. Just another day for unabashed antisemite Susan Abulhawa,” wrote the Anti-Defamation League in a post responding to her book deal.Earlier this year, Mr. Mamdani sought to distance his wife, Rama Duwaji, an illustrator who was hired to do artwork for a short story to be included in the anthology, Every Moment is a Life: Gaza in the Time of Genocide, which Ms. Abulhawa was editing for Simon & Schuster. The mayor said he had never met or engaged with the author though Mr. Mamdani’s father, Mahmood Mamdani, a retired professor connected to Columbia University’s anthropology department, served on the school’s Center for Palestine Studies with Ms. Abulhawa. He has not responded to the latest uproar over Ms. Abulhawa, but denied that he specifically excluded Jews from the panel.A new study released Monday shows 72 percent of X posts that mentioned Jews just over last weekend made negative statements, including some calling for a new genocide. The rehabilitation of designer John Galliano after a 15-year pause in popular adulation following his being convicted by a French court for religious insults after telling two Jewish women in Paris that they should have been gassed; the celebration of Palestinian authors and tossing of Jewish authors from literary shows and festivals; and even the excommunication of non-Jews from the artworld for speaking up on Jews’ behalf, have raised the bar on the recent normalization of antisemitism across literary and cultural circles. “So let me get this straight. Susan Abulhawa, an unabashed antisemite who traffics in antisemitic tropes and glorifies terrorism gets a book deal. Meanwhile, Jewish authors increasingly face campaigns to boycott, blacklist, and silence them, while bookstores, festivals, and other cultural institutions face pressure to exclude or distance themselves from Jewish and Zionist voices,” wrote the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt. “We’re reaching a point where opposing antisemitism can carry a greater professional cost than promoting it.”Commentators are wondering how far the sentiment may go before a reckoning comes. “When you google Susan Abulhawa, she is often described as one of the most widely read, praised and awarded Palestinian author writing in English. What they don’t tell you is how much better her writing is in the original German,” joked a popular pro-Israel commentator on X who goes by Claire_V0ltaire.Responding to the uproar over the book deal, Ms. Abulhawa maintained her tone late Monday, challenging those who would attempt to have her contract cancelled. “If it comes to it, I wouldn’t be the first to lose my livelihood because of these parasites,” she wrote. “I regret nothing in what I’ve said about these baby killing demons. I have never witnessed such a violent, sadistic, lowly lot as zionists and they deserve all the contempt and hatred in the world. Feel free to screen shot this one too and send it to my agent, publisher, or places I’m invited to speak. I’m living rent free in your rotted brains.

Palestinian Author Supportive of October 7 Attacks Gets New Book Deal Amid Concerns Antisemitism Has Notched Up to Normal

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