Two authors have filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles over the cancellation of a Read Palestine Week event at the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL). The writers, Jenan Matari, a Palestinian-American author, and Nora Lester Murad, a Jewish-American writer, were scheduled to speak virtually on December 6, 2025, as part of the library's Teen'Scape program.
Event Canceled Days Before Scheduled Talk
Matari and Murad's talk was promoted as the library's programming for Read Palestine Week, an international event celebrating Palestinian writers. Members of the library's teen council, a youth volunteer group, had advocated for the event. Matari was promoting her debut children's book, Everything Grows in Jiddo's Garden, about a young Palestinian girl and her grandfather, while Murad was set to discuss Ida in the Middle, her young adult novel about a 13-year-old Palestinian-American girl.
Three days before the discussion, the writers were told that LAPL administrators had canceled the event without explanation, according to their complaint filed on Monday. The authors said their requests for a follow-up meeting were ignored.
Lawsuit Alleges Discrimination and Free Speech Violations
The lawsuit, filed in state court in LA, alleges free speech violations, discrimination, and breach of contract. “Palestinian writers and creatives are so exhausted by having to fight every day to have our voices heard,” Matari said. “To be censored by an institution like the library is really scary because this is where free speech should be cultivated and nurtured. It sets a very dangerous precedent … Nora and I agreed we had to show these institutions they cannot continue to get away with this.”
The cancellation came after a staff librarian wrote an email to library leadership on November 17, accusing both writers of having “strong terrorist ties and virulently antisemitic views,” according to documents disclosed through public records requests and cited in the lawsuit. The email said it was sent on behalf of a group of Jewish library staffers and stated: “although the event is planned as an online program, the safety of library staff and participants must still be taken into consideration.”
Library Cites Core Values in Defense
The email included links to rightwing news articles and pro-Israel activist websites that had accused Matari and Murad of antisemitism. One website cited social media posts by Matari after the October 7, 2023 attacks in which she wrote “resist” and “May this Palestinian uprising be the push needed for the dominos of colonialism to fall from every corner of this world.” In another post, she said the US was “under Zionist occupation.” A pro-Israel webpage about Murad cited her participation in Gaza solidarity protests at Columbia University in 2024 and included video of her chanting: “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!”
In a December 16 staff email discussing the cancellation, John Szabo, the longtime city librarian, said all library programs must “align with our core values, including welcoming everyone.” He said Matari's posts related to October 7 “did not meet these requirements” and that cancellation was “necessary to uphold the library's commitment to an inclusive environment.”
An LAPL spokesperson did not respond to detailed questions, saying in an email on Monday that it had not yet seen the lawsuit. Szabo and the librarian who sent the email criticizing the authors did not immediately respond to inquiries, nor did a spokesperson for the city attorney's office.
Authors Respond to Allegations
Matari said she was used to criticism but found the terrorism allegations particularly disturbing. She stood by her social media posts, saying her detractors had conflated anti-Zionism with antisemitism: “I'm vehemently anti-Zionist and all my posts reflect that … I have been watching people back home living every single day with a violent oppressive boot on their neck that I pay for with my tax money.” She added: “Every day for the last 100 years has been 7 October for Palestinians.”
Murad, who has written for the Guardian and previously taught at Fordham University, condemned the claims: “To say someone has strong terrorist ties is an accusation of a crime, the consequences of which can be lifetime in jail.” She called the claims of antisemitism “laughable” but noted that “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.”
Matari also objected to safety concerns: “Nora and I weren't even supposed to be there physically, but they framed it as if our event was going to put the library in a position of danger. This fear is all manufactured. Bringing Palestinians into your spaces does not make it dangerous.”
Internal Backlash and Broader Context
The lawsuit claims the cancellation was “hypocritical” and “inconsistent” with past practices, noting the library had recently hosted several panellists with political beliefs, including an actor who campaigned for a presidential candidate. It alleges violations of a California anti-discrimination law, stating: “The portrayal of Palestinians … as hateful or violent simply because they speak out in opposition to the Israeli genocide and in defense of the fundamental and legal rights of Palestinians is an anti-Palestinian trope that has long been employed to silence and dehumanize Palestinians.”
Emails show internal backlash, including from two librarians involved in organizing the event, who wrote a joint email calling the accusations “disrespectful, disgusting, and racist.” More than 100 staffers signed a letter condemning the cancellation and requesting an apology. One anonymous librarian said the cancellation took staff by surprise: “People were questioning whether this was an organization for them, whether they could do the work we're tasked with under these conditions.”
Mark Kleiman, the writers' lawyer, argued that as a taxpayer-funded institution, the library cannot ban people based on their identities or viewpoints: “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.”
Before the LA library, two private bookstores had canceled planned readings with Matari. After the LA news broke, a library in New York also canceled her scheduled event. The writers are coming forward amid widespread outrage about the suppression of pro-Palestine advocacy in the US, after the rapper Macklemore was dropped from Ed Sheeran's tour over his “free Palestine” comments.
Matari said the event would have been significant: “It would have been such a pivotal moment to see a Palestinian author and Jewish author sitting with each other.” Murad said she wanted to file the lawsuit on behalf of youth: “The mission of the libraries is to protect accessibility to all information for the public … if they can get away with censoring Palestinians, then censorship is allowed and normalized.”
