Self-described Egyptian American Muslim mother and author Eman Kourtam envisions her children’s book Zain & Mima Stand for Palestine as “a fun dynamic way” to tell “stories about real life situations,” so readers can grow up to be “wonderful caring human beings.” In the story, a mother, upset because “awful things happened in Palestine today,” brings her two young children to a protest, then delivers an impromptu and flawed history lesson, which the children take to heart. The resulting picture book, with illustrations by Sophia Soliman, delivers a biased history of Israel and traffics in dangerous antisemitic stereotypes while simultaneously failing to meet the benchmarks of quality children’s literature.
1. Rather than promoting caring attitudes, Zain and Mima’s creators misrepresent the historical record and perpetuate antisemitic myths:
- Zionism is inaccurately defined as the belief “that there should be a land only for Jews,” when, in fact, Zionism is the belief that there should be a Jewish homeland for Jews in their ancestral homeland of Israel, where others can freely live. Israel has always been a diverse society with a majority of Jews.
- Theodore Herzl, Zionism’s founder, is depicted using the antisemitic trope of the monstrous, controlling Jew. With a sinister, menacing expression, he wraps tentacled arms around a map of Israel, gathering Jews in and forcing Palestinians out. This classic antisemitic depiction evokes Nazi-era propaganda depicting the Jew as an octopus clawing its tentacles around a world bleeding from its wounds.
- An illustration with speech bubbles employs the stereotype of the acquisitive, greedy Jew: A Palestinian woman begs, “You are stealing my house!” A fat, crude Jewish man with a prominent nose and frizzy beard replies, “If I don’t steal it someone else is gonna steal it!” This troubling image is a variation of the greedy, scheming Jewish merchant in the tradition of Shylock, another staple of Nazi caricatures.
- Zionism is equated with Nazism in words and pictures of a Nazi intimidating a Jew, who, in turn, intimidates an Arab. The Nazi and the Jew in military attire command by force; the victimized Arab clutches a house key and cowers in fear. This contemporary antisemitic meme is an example of the new phenomenon of Holocaust inversion, in which the lessons of the Holocaust are turned upside down. Jews are seen as perpetrators, not victims, of Nazism. The Holocaust is redefined from the historical genocide of the Jews in 1930s Europe to contemporary warfare in the Middle East.
2. Far from fun, dynamic, or realistic, Zain & Mima features wooden characters, a forced plot, duplicative illustrations, and clunky text:
- The central characters, Zain, Mima, and Mama, lack individual or believable personalities. The two children convey identical and repetitive thoughts and emotions. Mama is a cliched scone-baking nurturer at home and a fist-raised warrior at the rally.
- The “plot” is constructed to deliver the author’s moralizing agenda. The children, who are “tired” and “felt unsure,” must join Mama at a Palestinian march that passes conveniently in front of their home. The conflict, whether Mama can convert them into activists, serves as an excuse for Mama (and the author) to indoctrinate readers in a false history of Palestine, the true purpose of the book.
- The book’s words and illustrations contain a drumbeat of false and misleading ideological messages. Seven full pages of text and images of multicultural protestors, including token Jews, make it appear that all facets of American society, even American Jews, are firmly anti-Zionist. In fact, the American Jewish Committee’s 2023 State of Antisemitism Report finds that 84% of American Jews and 83% of the general public believe the statement “Israel has no right to exist” — the foundational core of anti-Zionism — is antisemitic.
- The book’s language is a strange mix of advanced ideological terms and simplistic directives forced into ungainly rhyming quatrains. For example, “Before we buy anything, we must/ check out a movement called BDS./ It gives us an important list/ of the companies that support Zionists.” This awkward, propagandistic “poetry” contains none of the joy to be found in the adept use of rhyme and rhythm characteristic of the best children’s literature.
Picture books should reward adult and child readers with distinctive characters facing genuine conflicts; storytelling achieved independently through pictures and text; and creative, age-appropriate forays into the richness of language. Picture books should not browbeat readers with moral lessons, propaganda, and stereotypes. Each of these reasons should disqualify Zain and Mima Stand for Palestine from inclusion in a children’s library, classroom, or bedroom. Taken together, they make the book inappropriate and even harmful for young readers.