Bondi library removes book How to Sell a Genocide from shelves after complaint

Bondi-area library pulls Gaza-critique title from shelves after survivor complaint

Wanderstayfinder.com – A public library in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has taken a book examining media coverage of the Gaza war off its display shelves, prompting a fresh debate over editorial independence in Australian civic institutions. The title in question, How to Sell a Genocide by media scholar Adam Johnson, was pulled from the “new release / hot item” rack at Waverley Library in Bondi Junction following what the council described as a complaint linked to a survivor of last December’s antisemitic attack on Bondi Beach, in which 15 people were killed.

The incident has landed squarely in the crosshairs of a political controversy already simmering across New South Wales. Earlier this year, the state government amended the Library Act specifically to shield public libraries from organised campaigns aimed at removing titles from collections. The question now facing Waverley Council — and, by extension, the state’s special minister of state for libraries, John Graham, and Mayor Will Nemesh — is whether a single complaint, however heartfelt, can override that legislative protection.

The complaint and the council’s response

According to reporting by the Jewish news outlet JWire, a survivor of the December Bondi Beach attack spotted the book on the library’s featured shelf and posted on Facebook that its prominent placement was distressing for survivors and bereaved families. The council confirmed it had been approached and acted accordingly.

“The book has been removed from library shelves for review, and council will further consider processes to ensure closer oversight of book selection.”

A Waverley council spokesperson added that, like most public libraries in Australia, the council outsources its book curation, ordering, and purchasing functions, meaning individual titles are not chosen by council officers directly. The spokesperson offered no further detail on the timeline of the removal or the specific terms of the complaint.

The book and its author’s rebuttal

Published by Pluto Press, How to Sell a Genocide argues that American media outlets have been complicit in shaping public perception of the destruction of Gaza. Johnson, a media-culture scholar, pushed back sharply against the council’s decision, framing it as an objection to the word “genocide” itself rather than to the book’s actual arguments.

“They seem to be objecting largely based on the title using the word ‘genocide’,” Johnson said. “But ‘genocide’ is not my word, or my finding. The fact of genocide in Gaza is the overwhelming consensus of the human rights world, and it is a wholly mainstream opinion among those tasked with studying and determining such matters.”

He went on to note that the term unsettles some readers, but that reality itself is often unsettling — particularly, he argued, for the parents of more than 20,000 children killed by Israel in Gaza since October 2023. He asked whether Sydney officials intended to remove pro-Israel titles from library shelves as well, on the grounds that they might upset members of the same community.

Reactions across the Jewish and pro-Palestinian communities

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies both declined to comment when approached. Bart Shteinman, an executive member of the progressive Jewish Council of Australia, called the removal “deeply alarming,” arguing that public libraries belong to every resident and should accommodate a wide spectrum of viewpoints, whether those viewpoints concern queer families or what he described as Israel’s widely condemned war crimes.

“If the council decides to remove this book permanently, both the mayor, Will Nemesh, and the special minister of state, John Graham, must explain how that decision is not in breach of the law,” Shteinman said.

Nasser Mashni, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, framed the episode within a longer historical pattern. He stressed that a library’s obligation is to give its community access to a broad range of published works, including those that challenge or discomfort. He pointed to the scale of the catastrophe in Gaza — hundreds of thousands of Palestinians killed, maimed, or displaced; engineered famine; the destruction of every hospital and university in the territory — and insisted the word “genocide” was being used descriptively, not provocatively.

“History has taught us too well what happens when books start getting banned,” Mashni said.

Publisher response and the broader stakes

David Shulman, senior commissioning editor at Pluto Press, called understanding the events in Gaza and the media coverage surrounding them “a matter of the greatest public concern.” He described Johnson as one of the sharpest media critics working today and characterised the book’s analysis as rigorous, meticulous, data-driven, and damning.

“His book should be made as widely available as possible, not least through the public libraries that play such an essential role in a democratic society,” Shulman said.

Israel has repeatedly and categorically denied that it has committed genocide in Gaza, a position that underpins much of the public disagreement the book’s title has now reignited in a very different setting: a suburban library in Sydney’s Bondi area, roughly two kilometres from the beach where the December attack took place. The proximity of the library to the site of that tragedy appears to have given the complaint particular emotional weight, even as legal and governance questions about how far a single constituent’s distress can override a council’s statutory duty to maintain an open collection remain unresolved.

The Waverley mayor and the special minister of state were contacted for comment ahead of publication. No response had been received at the time of writing.