Written by Susan Barranca

For those of us who have a love affair with the written word, book burning and book banning are like horror films. There has been some heated debate about the Paris Book Fair in Israel this week.

Apparently, President Shimon Peres has been asking to host the Paris book fair for five years now, and this was his lucky year. OR, was it? Because the book fair coincides with Israel's 60th anniversary, there has been an uproar in some of the Muslim nations.

Some Arab nations are upset about the venue and they are boycotting the event. The tensions have risen to the point that the whole Book fair was almost cancelled. But the books are winning in the end....let us hope.

The Paris Book Fair did indeed open today, even though there were many Arab authors and nations that are still boycotting the event. "Those who want to burn books, boycott wisdom, prevent reflection, block freedom, condemn themselves to blindness, ignorance, to lack of reflection, loss of freedom," Peres said in his only reference to the boycott.

As with all tensions in the middle east, the sides are not clearly drawn. There are some Israeli authors who are protesting that the Book fair is also celebrating the birth of Israel, and there are many Muslim authors who think the boycott is nonsense. In the meantime, we should celebrate all authors and their works.

As much as we would like to think that our country has left the era of book burning, we haven't left book banning. Logon to any website regarding education and books and you will still find a list of banned books.....

Read on!