New details for Manchester launch of Leila Khaled biography

So, after various to-ings and fro-ings the details for the rescheduled launch for the Leila Khaled biography have been hammered out. Manchester Digital Laboratory – better known to geeks and social entrepreneurs in the city as Madlab – have very kindly taken on hosting the event, with help from our city’s finest independent publishers, Comma Press (which, amongst many other titles, is home to The Madman of Freedom Square, a wonderful collecting of short stories from Iraqi write Hassan Blasim). The event is rescheduled for Friday May 25th to fit in with Madlab’s timetables, and full details are here. Oh, and it will feature the products of the very wonderful Marble Brewery, from just up from road from Madlab…

Disturbingly, it seems that the bullying which closed down my Blackwell’s launch is not the only – or the most serious – example of Zionist efforts to shut down discussion and debate on Palestine. See Pluto Press’s recent blog on the subject for more. Of course, the irony of this whole fiasco is that far more people have now heard about the book and its launch than would have done so if the Blackwell’s manager hadn’t been intimidated into taking this step – even the Manchester Evening News has covered the issue, although in characteristically cavalier style.