More backlash over ‘terrorism-inciting’ pro-Palestine colouring-in book

The arrests last weekend by Israeli police of Jerusalem bookshop owners for selling “terrorist-inciting books” — including a colouring-in book he published in 2023 — has brought back painful memories, says South African cartoonist Nathi Ngubane.

Ngubane uses illustrations to educate children about social issues. His book From the River to the Sea was singled out by Israeli police during the bookshop raids.

International media outlets, including CNN and The New York Times, criticised Israel after police detained Palestinian booksellers in East Jerusalem on suspicion of selling books containing incitement of and support for terrorism.

“Last night, detectives conducted searches at two bookstores suspected of selling materials with inciting content,” Israel Police said. “The suspects were arrested, and investigators uncovered numerous books with Palestinian incitement on [a] nationalistic background, including a children’s colouring book titled From the River to the Sea. The suspects, in their thirties, were arrested.”

International media reports claimed the police raid caused damage to the stores and their books, including children’s literature. They highlighted the confiscation of the colouring-in book, describing its title as controversial.

“For me, it is deeply concerning that a book celebrating Palestinian history and talking about their struggle is [considered] so offensive, to the point that a celebrated bookstore was raided,” Ngubane said. “I was concerned, and the incident took me back to 2023, when I was told my book [was] antisemitic and I was calling for the genocide of Israel. Palestinian voices continue to be censored and should be heard all around the world.”

Ngubane — a cartoonist, illustrator and author — first got into publishing books for children during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he released Duma Says to educate disadvantaged children about coronavirus and the importance of wearing a mask and washing hands.

Working alongside US-based publisher Social Bandit Media, Duma Says was well received. As the violence of October 7 2023 unfolded — when Hamas attacked Israel, leading to deadly retaliation by the Jewish state — Ngubane came up with an idea for his second book.

He said he was filled with pride when South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice seeking a declaration that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians after reprisals had led to tens of thousands of fatalities in Gaza. That is when he had the idea of educating children about Palestine through From the River to the Sea, a 40-page colouring-in book about an important issue.

“We didn’t want to make it just like any other colouring-in book, but rather an activity book that tells a story about Palestine. The idea was that it was going to read as a story, starting with the rich land of Palestine where [people of] different religions [once] lived together, and [then moving on to] the occupation [of the land] and the Nakba of 1948, in which thousands of Palestinians lost their lives. We wanted to tie the Palestine struggle [for freedom] to South Africa’s, which was [the struggle against] apartheid. We also featured Nelson Mandela and what he said about Palestine — that ‘our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians’.”

The book was finished in February in 2023 and launched in May, selling 3,000 copies until later that month, when the South African Jewish Board of Deputies in Cape Town condemned it.

“That is when the gates of hate opened,” Ngubane said. He regularly received hate mail on LinkedIn and social media from people who had not even read the book.

“People were triggered by the cover. I received a message that said, ‘If I ever get my hands on this book, I will burn it.’ Someone else said, ‘I would love to purchase a number of copies of this book so I can use them as toilet paper.’ A group then contacted Exclusive Books and demanded the book’s removal from its shelves. I guess Exclusive Books gave in to the pressure and removed the book.”

However, the chain store was soon selling the book again, after publicly saying its content did not incite hate and violence.

“The entire backlash propelled us to sell 10,000 more copies of the book. In September, the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation offered us a platform for an exhibition inspired by my book in Cape Town. I was joined by 20 other artists, each of whom took pages from the colouring-in book and interpreted them in his or her own artistic way. The proceeds from that exhibition were used to buy colouring-in books for children and coloured pencils for disadvantaged children.”

The book raised about R240,000, with all the proceeds donated to Palestine through the Penny Appeal South Africa initiative, which does humanitarian relief work in the disputed territory.

“I have been contacted by parents around the world with messages of solidarity, saying they stand with me and really love the work I have done, and that they are grateful we are standing on the right side of history. I have received a lot of support.”