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 15 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 2026 to reinforce their independence to develop and maintain collections”. She said in a social media post on Thursday that Waverley library’s manager had notified staff that was happening.
The petition to restore the book was signed by almost 2,500 people. 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”. 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. 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.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
