Countries:
Israel, Jordan
Topics:
Children, Law, Literature, Language
Languages:
English

The Arabic version of the Harry Potter series is banned in Israel, reports The Black Iris, from Jordan. According to news sources, the ban is based on a decree from 1939 - when the area was under British mandate - prohibiting the importation of books from countries that are at war with Israel.

10 comments

  • ted

    Only the Arabic translations imported from Syria and Lebanon are banned. Where are the publishers in Jordan and Egypt when we need them.
    http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibXKUh2EIux3bSS6Y00PZvUcQ-0Q

    # 2008-08-13 at 16:01 pm
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  • Robby

    This headline is an outright lie. The book was NOT BANNED!

    Goods can not be imported from Israel’s enemies, it has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE BOOK.

    # 2008-08-15 at 3:45 am
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  • Amira Al Hussaini

    Robby,

    And the lie being?

    Aside from that there are two types of stories GV’s contributing authors can do – and both aim to link to online conversations. The first are the detailed articles, which appear on the left side of GVO, where there is space to elaborate and explain points in more detail. The second, where this link falls under are the global round ups – which are one to two-liner summaries which are meant to shed light on different conversations going on in different blogospheres. The scope of our Global Round Up coverage is to simply draw attention to different conversations and not delve into them. For more details on this article, please follow the link here:

    http://www.black-iris.com/2008/08/11/the-arabized-harry-potter-gets-banned/

    As for the headline, please feel free to suggest a better one – one, which preferably has Harry Potter, Israel and Banned in it. We can add Arabic, Enemy states, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt to it too, but then it would be too long and will not fit GVO’s criteria of having an average of eight words in the headline.

    There are thousands of conversations going on online – and selecting a handful to feature here isn’t the easiest of tasks. If you see any interesting ones, please feel free to email me and share them.

    Thanks again for dropping by.

    # 2008-08-15 at 13:48 pm
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  • Robby

    This story is not news, but rather business as usual. Have you ever seen a headline such as “Russia: US bans Cuban cigars”, “England: Arab world bans Israeli Fruit”, or “Jordan: Israel bans Iranian Pistachios”?

    BTW – Chances are that in all of the above cases the bans are not really enforced anyway.

    If you want to write about the region: The Iranian reaction to their Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashai’s remarks about the Israeli people seems more worthy of conversation.

    Thanks
    Robby

    # 2008-08-15 at 15:25 pm
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  • Amira Al Hussaini

    Robby,
    I am with you on the same page.. but the thing is that I am just doing my job and what it entails. I go through blogs and link to the conversations going on on them :( It isn’t my job to ‘manufacture’ news.

    As for your suggestion to follow up on the Iranian Vice President’s comment, I will pass on the suggestion to our Iran and Farsi author – Hamid Tehrani – who I am sure would oblige – if there were bloggers writing about it. I will also ask my Israel volunteer authors to check the Israeli blogosphere and see if there are any reactions there. As you see our hands are tied to what bloggers from the regions we cover write about.

    And please do email me any links you think should be covered on GV.

    Thanks again for taking time to comment. I really do appreciate it. I just wanted to explain where I come from and don’t want you to walk away thinking that there is a hidden agenda anywhere.

    # 2008-08-15 at 19:49 pm
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  • Robby

    Thank you Amira, and I see that Hamid has already added a thread about the Iranian vice president.

    I’ll keep you in mind as I read things around the web.

    # 2008-08-16 at 2:56 am
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  • Amira Al Hussaini

    Robby,
    Looking forward to hearing from you.

    # 2008-08-16 at 3:25 am
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  • marlon garren

    It seems that no one has thought to point out that in 1939 Israel DID NOT EXIST!!!!

    # 2008-08-16 at 5:56 am
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  • Robby

    Marlon – as the story points out, it was under the British Mandate.

    # 2008-08-16 at 14:12 pm
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  • marlon garren

    Robby – it was called The Mandate for Palestine,the British Mandate for Palestine, or the British Mandate of Palestine. It was not called Israel until the State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. That is the first time, outside of religious doctrine which we can’t use here, the name “Israel” was used the refer to a nation, The use of the term Palestine can be dated back to the 5th century BC, from Herodotus. The eastern Mediterranean coast was collectively refered to as
    “the Philistine Syria” using the Greek language form of the name. In AD 135, it was renamed “Provincia Syria Palaestina”, the Latin version of the Greek name and the first use of the name as an administrative unit. The name “Provincia Syria Palaestina” was later shortened to Palaestina, from which the modern “Palestine” is derived. Therefore, Palestine has been the common term used for over 2000 years to refer to the entire region as a political entity and/or state.

    # 2008-08-16 at 21:18 pm
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