Jenan Matari and Nora Lester Murad were scheduled to discuss their children's and young adult books at a virtual Los Angeles Public Library event on 6 December 2025, organized as part of Read Palestine Week through the library's Teen'Scape program. Three days before the event, administrators cancelled it without explanation. The authors' requests for a follow-up meeting were ignored. The cancellation was triggered by a 17 November email from a staff librarian to library leadership, sent on behalf of a group of Jewish library staffers, accusing both writers of having "strong terrorist ties and virulently antisemitic views." The email cited rightwing news articles and pro-Israel activist websites. Matari's cited posts included writing "resist" after 7 October 2023 and saying the US was "under Zionist occupation." Murad's cited activity included participation in Gaza solidarity protests at Columbia University in 2024. City Librarian John Szabo justified the decision in a 16 December internal email, saying all programs must "align with our core values, including welcoming everyone" and that Matari's posts "did not meet these requirements." The lawsuit, filed in LA state court, alleges free speech violations, discrimination, and breach of contract under California anti-discrimination law. The authors argue that as a taxpayer-funded institution, the library cannot ban speakers based on identity or viewpoint. The internal response was significant. Two librarians who organized the event wrote to leadership calling the terrorist-ties accusation "disrespectful, disgusting, and racist." More than 100 staffers signed a letter condemning the cancellation and requesting an apology. One anonymous librarian said staff questioned "whether this was an organization for them." The LAPL spokesperson did not respond to detailed questions, saying only that it had not yet seen the lawsuit. Matari stood by her social media posts, distinguishing anti-Zionism from antisemitism. Murad, who has taught at Fordham University and written for the Guardian, called the antisemitism claims "laughable" but noted their real-world power: "a completely bogus accusation can have a lot of power. It got me canceled from a library, but it's getting people abducted and deported." The event was virtual — neither author would have been physically present — yet the original complaint framed it as a safety concern. The pattern extends beyond LA. Two private bookstores had already cancelled Matari's readings before the library event. After the LA cancellation became public, a New York library also cancelled her scheduled appearance. The lawsuit arrives amid broader suppression of pro-Palestine advocacy, including Macklemore being dropped from Ed Sheeran's tour after "free Palestine" comments. The core constitutional question is narrow and consequential: can a publicly funded library cancel a scheduled event based on a speaker's political views about a foreign conflict, relying on third-party activist complaints as the evidentiary basis? The authors' lawyer, Mark Kleiman, framed it plainly: "When you are dependent on public money, you don't get to be bigoted and shut people up because they are Palestinian-American … and are speaking up about a genocide." The court's answer will set precedent for how far external pressure campaigns can reach into public institutional programming.
