Matthew Teller, the author of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem (Profile Books), has left the UK Society of Authors (SoA) in protest at their statement following the raid on Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop by Israeli police.
The SoA said: “We are concerned by recent press reports on the police raid of an educational bookshop in a country which is governed by a parliamentary democracy. It is vital that free thought and free speech is respected and protected and to read about the removal of books from bookshops anywhere in the world is deeply troubling and must be resisted.”
In a statement on X, Teller said that the trade union’s statement on the Educational Bookshop did not mention the name of Mahmoud Muna, with whom Teller co-edited Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture (Saqi Books), along with Juliette Touma.
Teller also criticised the statement for omitting other details, such as the name of the bookshop and the identities of those who arrested the booksellers.
He added: “I would have hoped my trade union would have taken this opportunity to illuminate the evils of state censorship and defend those who seek to practise freedom.”
A spokesperson from the SoA told the Guardian that the union “is saddened when any of our members decide to leave us”.
However, they added that “on this occasion, the SoA did not have enough information to comment on the situation concerning the bookshop in Jerusalem […] Nevertheless, we considered that recent press reports provided an opportunity to the SoA to remind our members of its position on book bans.”
