![Diana Alghoul](/sites/default/files/styles/image_72x72/public/2022-05/MicrosoftTeams-image%20%2831%29.png?h=a2b6372d&itok=K4kBZht4)
This children's book recognises that Palestinians exist and pro-Israel media is angry
P is for Palestine is a children’s alphabet book that was written by Iranian children’s author Dr. Golbarg Bashi. The book has the 26 letters of the English alphabet, each letter standing for a word attributed to Palestine and Palestinian culture.
She says she wrote her book to help Palestinian children learn about their culture and reaffirm their identity. Having being in exile for generations, Palestinians resort to learning about their culture through literature, song, dance and other creative forms that keep their nationalist cause and their identity alive.
One word which stood out was Gaza, in which Bashi describes the besieged enclave as having “generous casa’s”, meaning having generous homes despite suffering a 10-year siege and living through a humanitarian situation that is deteriorating by the day.
Other words, such as Eid, a Muslim holiday, Intifada, the name of Palestinian nationalist uprisings and dabkeh, the traditional dance of Palestine.
But this children’s book was smeared by pro-Israel media and Zionists themselves as being a threat and propagator of terror… not racist at all, right?
A common way to discredit the existence of Palestinians is to say that there is no 'p' in the Arabic language. Even Palestinians have said that have been told to their faces that they do not exist because of this.
One op-ed which attempted to smear this cultural children's book claimed that Palestinians "cannot pronounce the name that they have appropriated."
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Some have accused the Intifada as marketing "terrorism".
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But not all hope has been lost. If anything, the hate Bashi has faced has actually encouraged others to buy her book and to really start a discussion on the depth in which pro-Israeli propaganda tactics are stopping at nothing to demonise even acknowledging that Palestinians exist.
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