A Sydney library has returned to its borrowing shelves a book critical of Israel called How to Sell a Genocide following a public campaign and an intervention from the State Library of New South Wales.
Waverley library removed the book “for review” earlier this month after the Jewish news outlet JWire reported it had approached the council.
JWire said a survivor of December’s antisemitic attack at Bondi, during which ۱۵ people were killed, saw How to Sell a Genocide on the “new release / hot item” shelf and wrote on Facebook that the display was distressing for survivors and bereaved families.
Guardian Australia was unable to locate the Facebook post. Waverley library at Bondi Junction is in the same council area as Bondi beach.
A staff member at the council-operated library on Friday confirmed the book was back on its shelves. Waverley council was contacted for comment.
The State Library had written to the council reminding it of its obligations under guidelines issued by the Library Council of NSW and the Library Act “which was amended in ۲۰۲۶ to reinforce their independence to develop and maintain collections”.
“The State Library of NSW supports free and equitable access to information,” a spokesperson said.
“The library acknowledges that some books and materials may not align with everyone’s personal views, experiences or beliefs, but supports the right of individuals to make their own choices about what they read, view and access.
“The library has outlined to Waverley council the law and policy relevant to this situation.”
Ramia Abdo Sultan, a lawyer, helped organise a change.org petition calling for the book to be returned to the shelves. She said in a social media post on Thursday that Waverley library’s manager had notified staff that was happening.
“There are ۲۱ people so far queued up in a waiting list for that book,” Abdo Sultan, a board member of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, said.
The petition to restore the book was signed by almost ۲,۵۰۰ people.
“We acknowledge and respect the grief and trauma experienced by victims of violence and antisemitism,” it stated.
“However, individual distress, offence or political disagreement should not determine what the broader public is permitted to access through a public library. Readers should be afforded the opportunity to access books freely and form their own opinions on the contents of the book.”
The book, published by Pluto Press and written by Adam Johnson, critiques what it claims is the US media’s “complicity in the destruction of Gaza”.
Johnson welcomed the decision to reinstate his book but criticised the council for “thus far refusing to answer what complaint prompted the book’s removal”. Johnson said he hoped to find out “through legal channels”.
“It’s obviously a good development the council decided to end their ban of the book amid pressure from free speech and Palestine activists, whose support I am grateful for,” he said.
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“But it was never about one library or one book, but about the increased suppression of pro-Palestine speech in Australia, which has radically escalated over the past seven months. Attempts to blame Palestine solidarity and sympathies for the Bondi attack, as the book ban advocates repeatedly did, is the real story. This false and sleazy conflation must stop.”
Guardian Australia approached the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (Ecaj) and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies for comment.
Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive officer of Ecaj, previously welcomed the book’s removal.
“A book of this sort has no place on the shelves of a library, especially one within minutes of where Australians were slaughtered [at Bondi],” Ryvchin told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I commend the individual who spotted the book, herself a survivor of the massacre, and acted to have it removed.”
Bart Shteinman, an executive member of the progressive Jewish Council of Australia, said the book should “never have been removed in the first place”.
“This debacle should be a lesson for other councils that stifling literary freedom only confuses and undermines the critical struggle against antisemitism and all forms of racism,” he said on Thursday.
“Banning books is not something any council should be doing.”
The president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, Nasser Mashni, said: “That a single complaint was enough to trigger the removal of a book about the genocide in Palestine should concern every Australian who values free inquiry and open debate. These efforts must be resisted.”
Multiple human rights groups have said Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide, which Israel denies. In June, an independent UN inquiry found Israel continued to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza.
At the time the book was removed, a Waverley council spokesperson said: “The book has been removed from library shelves for review, and council will further consider processes to ensure closer oversight of book selection.”
