CAMERA Requests Correction and Retraction From The Guardian (UK)

November 5, 2025

The Guardian
Kings Place
90 York Way
London, N1 9GU
United Kingdom

Dear Editors:
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA)
objects to the article “‘They didn’t even read the book’: How children’s authors are being
canceled over Palestine,” by Joseph Gedeon, published online on October 9 and viewed in
a browser.

The article contains inaccurate accounts of events involving CAMERA at the 2024
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) conference and fails to meet the Guardian’s
editorial standards on accuracy and opportunity to reply, as CAMERA was never contacted
for comment.

The article relies heavily on claims from author Maysa Odeh, who asserts that she
and her colleagues “required security” at the NCTE conference after “being targeted” by
CAMERA. Your reporter then adds, without attribution, that CAMERA “has long been
accused of smear and intimidation tactics.” Both claims are untrue.

While Odeh told the Guardian NCTE offered her and her colleagues security when
requested, an anonymous group of “Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and allied educators and
authors” claimed in an email to supporters circulated before the event that NCTE refused
to provide them security. In the email, they alleged that NCTE “decided not to respond to
our concerns” and told them to obtain private security if they felt unsafe (see attachment).

The contentious atmosphere at the NCTE conference was created not by CAMERA
but by certain presenters and attendees who sought to disrupt the event. One such
presenter, Sawsan Jaber, spent most of her remarks, CAMERA observed, targeting NCTE as
“disgusting” for having rejected claims by her and her colleagues that Israel was
committing a genocide in Gaza. Presenters displayed inflammatory slides urging attendees
to “bombard” NCTE board members with emails and, seeking to politicize the event,
encouraged audience members to come to the front to pick up keffiyehs and “Free
Palestine” pins to wear during the conference to show solidarity with Palestinians and
protest NCTE’s decision not to exclude CAMERA.

Contrary to the article’s framing, NCTE rejected calls to exclude CAMERA stating,
“disinviting [CAMERA] would undermine NCTE’s standards supporting freedom of speech
and prohibiting censorship.”

The authors cited in the article object to CAMERA’s scrutiny of their books, and your
article says CAMERA “monitors pro-Palestinian voices.” CAMERA’s book reviews are not
rooted in identity or politics but, rather, in documented issues of factual distortion,
historical inaccuracy, and omission that render certain works unsuitable for K–12
audiences. CAMERA’s responsibility is to point out those flaws.

The authors’ accusations of intimidation serve to deflect from substantive critiques
of their work. If they wish to defend their books, they should engage with the specific
factual and historical concerns raised rather than invoke identity-based victimhood.
Their books are not objectionable because the writers are Palestinian, Muslim, or
pro-Palestinian. They are objectionable because they contain demonstrable bias and
historical inaccuracies.

The Guardian owes its readers, and CAMERA, a clarification that NCTE refused to
provide security to authors who objected to CAMERA’s presence at the conference. The
Guardian also should retract its statement that CAMERA “has long been accused of smear
and intimidation tactics” if it is not able to identify who has credibly and repeatedly made
such claims.

Sincerely,

Education Department
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis