The radical Families for Ceasefire Philly organization has used city libraries to teach children slogans like ‘From the River to the Sea’ and display maps with ‘Falasteen’ instead of Israel
Philadelphia’s public libraries have hosted, and plan to continue hosting, anti-Israel “storytime” events that teach children that Israel “senselessly murdered” thousands of kids in Gaza, depict a map in which Israel is entirely replaced with “Palestine,” and create art projects promoting the “Palestinian liberation” movement.
The Free Library of Philadelphia, which receives both state and federal funding, has scheduled at least six “Palestine Storytime & Crafts” events this summer sponsored by an extremist anti-Israel group called Families for Ceasefire Philly.
The Kingsessing Library, for instance, has advertised one storytime event on its website alongside a photo of a child wearing a headscarf that features an image of the Dome of the Rock and the Arabic phrase, “Jerusalem, we are coming,” a slogan Hamas and Hezbollah use to call for the destruction of the Jewish state. The library advertises the event—scheduled for Aug. 9—as being for “children of all ages.”
The Zionist Organization of America’s (ZOA) Philadelphia chapter has tracked anti-Israel programming in the city’s libraries over the past four years and found that the municipal system has hosted at least a dozen events sponsored by extremist anti-Israel groups since Oct. 7.
The events, which feature children’s books and arts and crafts, have pushed narratives demonizing Israel and promoting contentious policies like the Palestinian “right of return.”
The Lovett Memorial Library hosted a June “Palestinian Storytime” event where children heard the picture book “A Map for Falasteen” read to them. The book states that, in 1948, Israeli soldiers “came with their tanks and guns” and “destroyed our villages and gave them new names.” It also includes a large map that depicts “Falasteen” instead of Israel.
An event at the Moore Library last November, titled “Watermelons & Kefiyyehs: Protest Art of Palestine,” involved “imagery used in Palestinian liberation struggles” and “protest art” featuring keffiyehs and other “resistance” symbols.
Another program hosted by the Fishtown Library provided children with coloring pages that promoted the Palestinian “right of return.” One page featured an image of a key and read: “When Palestinians fled from, or were thrown out, of their homes during the Nakba in 1948, they took their house keys with them. The keys have been passed on from generation to generation as lasting symbols of their ‘right of return.’”
The Queen Memorial Library hosted a “Birds of Gaza” craft project in June 2024 in which organizers directed children to create paper birds decorated with the names of “martyred children of the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza.”
The Families for Ceasefire Philadelphia has sponsored many of the library events. The radical group organized an anti-Israel rally in February 2025 at which speakers declared, “all glory to the martyrs,” has promoted boycotts of Israeli products in local grocery stores, and has led seminars on how to teach children that Israel commits “genocide” and “apartheid.”
Families for Ceasefire Philly posted excerpts online from its workshop “Talking to Kids About Palestine” in September 2024. The group devoted one section to explaining “tricky concepts in kid language.”
Families for Ceasefire Philly said children should be told that the word “apartheid” means the “[p]eople in charge of Israel made different rules for Palestinians than Israelis. They made it so that Palestinians have different things than Israelis like roads & schools, making it hard for Palestinians to get what they need.”
“The people in charge of Israel sent their army to a place that wasn’t theirs, saying ‘This is ours now!’ The people living on that land are Palestinians,” said the Families for Ceasefire workshop. “The people of Israel make the Palestinians follow their unfair rules. They kicked them out of their homes and make it really hard for the Palestinians to get what they need to be happy and healthy.”
The group has also taught children anti-Israel slogans—some of which demand the elimination of the Jewish state—at its workshops. During a Valentine’s Day event at which kids made cards for their “friends in Gaza,” one such card included the phrase, “From the River to the Sea,” a popular chant calling for Israel’s destruction.
Local Jewish leaders said they are concerned that the library’s events are aimed at “indoctrinating and manipulating children” by “twisting around the facts of history about the Middle East, and demonizing the Jewish people by demonizing Israel and Zionism.”
“Libraries are [viewed as] safe places where parents and grandparents can take their kids and the programming is safe as milk,” ZOA Philadelphia executive director Steve Feldman told the Washington Free Beacon. “[They] shouldn’t be used for programming that incites Jew-hatred and other forms of social engineering . . . They’re not indoctrination centers.”
Read the full article here
