Book Lists
At PLANN we’ve made the conscious decision to primarily highlight and promote resources by authors who are Palestinian or of Palestinian descent. This is not because we don’t believe that other resources are appropriate or educational - they absolutely are - but because the Western world has had over 76 years of publishing and promoting other perspectives. We believe it is time to hear, read and prioritise Palestinian voices and Palestinian self-determination.
Suppliers/stockists
Although the official BDS campaign does not call for a full boycott of Amazon (it instead advises applying pressure on them to end their complicity), Amazon’s involvement in Project Nimbus and their treatment of workers means they are not an ethical group to source your books from.
We have had luck in finding resources via Readings, Angus & Robertson and Emaan in Coburg.
You may also be able to purchase items from an author or publisher’s official website.
Additionally, we recommend visiting the Black Spark Cultural Centre in Northcote, not too far a walk from Croxton railway station.
Black Spark sell books, have a gallery space, and regularly host events and talks, often about Palestine.
Did you know…?
If your local library doesn’t have an item in stock, you can submit a request for them to purchase this item.
To do this will vary slightly per library, but generally speaking you can do the following:
Send an email to your library with the item details, such as the title, author name, ISBN and publisher,
OR:
Navigate to the library website and login as you would normally. You should then be able to find a button that says something like, “suggest a purchase” or “suggest an item.” Click on this button. This will then take you to a page or form which asks you to fill out details about the item (as above, these are likely to be the author name, book title, publisher and perhaps the ISBN too).
Library acquisitions staff often make purchases based on data - so the more Palestinian resources we request and borrow, the greater the purchasing rate will be for the future.
The wonderful team at APAN have their very own library collection housed here in Naarm!
The majority of this collection was donated from Professor Hal Wootten prior to his passing. Among his many achievements, Professor Wootten established the Aboriginal Legal Service, was chairman of the Australian Press Council, was a Royal Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1987, moved briefly to Ram’allah at the age of 85, and in his early 90s he began learning Arabic and started a Diploma in Middle Eastern Studies.
To learn more about the collection or how you can borrow one of their titles, please email the library staff at APAN below.