In March through May 2025, Librarians and Archivists with Palestine invited communities to read, gather, and discuss They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri, the 2025 title for our “One Book, Many Communities” international reading campaign. Tamimi became known worldwide after a clip of her slapping an Israeli soldier went viral, but her struggle against apartheid and occupation began long before that. In They Called Me a Lioness, Tamimi and Takruri reveal the events that led to Tamimi’s courageous defiance and its aftermath. Through this narrative we see how Tamimi’s family, village, and fellow prisoners inspired and supported her through imprisonment, continued struggle against oppression, and the tribulations of her newfound fame. Additionally, Tamimi and Takruri outline important points in history from the Nakba in 1948 to the present day in an accessible way that makes the book an excellent primer on the struggle for Palestinian self-determination.

Book clubs and communities across Canada, the United States, and United Kingdom hosted discussions in person and virtually. Below are photos from some of these events.

Thank you to all the volunteers who held One Book, Many Communities events in 2025!

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• March 9, 2025, 3:00 pm (CST): All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. Hosted by Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East.
• March 15, 2025, 12:00 pm (PST): Online event hosted by Black Girl Hockey Club. Register here.
• March 17, 2025, 5:00 pm (EST): Islamic Studies Library, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. More information here.
• April 3, 2025, 6:30 pm (CST): Online event hosted by Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Read Palestine. Request a Zoom link via this email address and view the event flyer here.
• April 5, 2025: Private, in-person event hosted by Maplewood Neighbors, Maplewood, New Jersey, USA.
• April 9, 2025, 6:30 pm (PST): Okanagan Regional Library, Vernon Branch, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada. Register here.
• April 22, 2025, 7:00 pm (EST): Hosted by Kensington-Windsor Terrace Mutual Aid in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Send an email to this address for more info.
• April 23, 2025: Private book group, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
• April 24, 2025, 10:00 am (EST): Hosted by Library Freedom Project at Stay Gold Books, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
• April 26, 2025: Private event, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
• April 30, 2025, 7:00 pm (BST): Hosted by Palestine Solidarity Campaign Merton & Richmond and Kingston at Mora Meza Bar & Restaurant, London, England, United Kingdom. More info and registration here.
• April 30, 2025, 7:00 pm (EST): Co-hosted with the United Jewish People’s Order as part of the Book Club at Another Story Bookshop, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Register here.
• May 9, 2025, 6:00 pm (EST): Presented by Families for Ceasefire Philly at Making Worlds Books, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. This event is a fundraiser for Black Mama’s Bail Out. More info and registration here.
• May 27, 2025, 6:30 pm (EST): Featuring a talk by University of Delaware Professor Emily Davis, Hockessin Library, Hockessin, Delaware, USA.
• May 29, 2025, 8:00 pm (EST): Hosted by SOMA Collective for Palestine, South Orange, New Jersey, USA. RSVP via this email address to get the meeting location.

Previous One Book, Many Communities events:

2025: They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri. Tamimi became known worldwide after a clip of her slapping an Israeli soldier went viral, but her struggle against apartheid and occupation began long before that. Through this narrative we see how Tamimi’s family, village, and fellow prisoners inspired and supported her through imprisonment, continued struggle against oppression, and the tribulations of her newfound fame. Additionally, Tamimi and Takruri outline important points in history from the Nakba in 1948 to the present day in an accessible way that makes the book an excellent primer on the struggle for Palestinian self-determination.

2024: Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear by Mosab Abu Toha. This poetry collection paints a picture of life in Gaza, first as a child and later as a young father. The scenes of violence and destruction of living through four brutal military attacks are set against a landscape of humanity and joy as resistance of Palestine and its people.

2021: Minor Detail by Adania Shibli. A Palestinian woman is determined to know more about a young Bedouin girl raped and killed by Israeli soldiers in 1949.

2020: The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem. Set in modern-day Jaffa and the greater Tel Aviv area, the story follows Alaa, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and his friend Ariel, a Jewish Israeli. After Alaa disappears, Ariel finds Alaa’s journals and Alaa’s family memories create a dialogue with Ariel as the crisis of the mass disappearance unfolds.

2018: Code Name: Butterfly by Ahlam Bsharat. This coming-of-age novel portrays life under occupation from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl. Butterfly and her peers have conventional teenage challenges like love and jealousy, but they also contend with fears and struggles most adults will never have to experience.

2017: “Returning to Haifa” by Ghassan Kanafani as found in the short story collection Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa and Other Stories. Kanafani tells the story of a couple that was forced to flee Haifa in 1948 and is returning for the first time in 20 years. Their feelings of displacement are accompanied by grief for the son they had to leave behind.

2016: Sharon and My Mother-in-Law by Suad Amiry. Suad Amiry writes with humor and insight about the realities of life under occupation. From falling in love across borders to dealing with deliberately inscrutable Israeli policies, Amiry’s “Ramallah Diaries” will have you laughing and crying in the same breath. 

2015: Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. Mornings in Jenin is a sweeping, heart-wrenching historical saga about four generations of the Abulheja family. From Jenin to Jerusalem to Beirut to Philadelphia, the novel follows the family from its displacement from Ein Hod village in 1948 through love and loss over decades of life in Palestine and the diaspora.