Israeli authorities will release copies of a book by a U.S. author after they were confiscated as “incitement.”
Philip Winslow, the author of “Victory For Us is to See you Suffer: In the West Bank With the Palestinians and the Israelis,” was to have launched the book in Jerusalem at the end of September.
In a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly praised the book, published by Beacon Press in Boston, saying that “Winslow balances the Palestinian struggle to maneuver through an ever-growing web of walls, checkpoints and Israeli military operations in the West Bank with close attention to Israel’s legitimate defense needs and the fear created by Palestinian terrorism.”
Winslow is a former reporter and a former official with UNRWA, the U.N. agency administering relief to Palestinian refugees.
Beacon Press sent 70 copies of the book to Jerusalem in time for the launch through UPS. The delivery service said Israeli Customs officials confiscated the book, labeling it “incitement.”
Israeli foreign ministry officials checked into the matter and succeeded this week in getting Customs to release the book.
“I asked them to look into it again,” a foreign ministry official told JTA. “The first investigation was very, very superficial.”
The Jerusalem bookstore slated to receive the book has yet to receive it, apparently because of technical issues to be sorted out between UPS and Customs.
