Opinion
Senator Amanda Cappelletti “spotlighted” Mavey Books in April 17. She visited the store and made a video with its owner. On April 24, the senator shared an “in case you missed” post, also about Mavey. She also featured the bookstore on her Website. Both posts still appear on Cappelletti’s Facebook, as does the post on her website.
In August, we learned that Mavey was promoting a book by Mahmoud Khalil and co-sponsoring a speaking engagement. Khalil effectively blames Israel, rather than Hamas, for October 7. While acknowledging that targeting civilians is wrong, he has described the Hamas attack as a “desperate attempt” to make Palestinians heard.
Then, on Yom Kippur—the holiest day on the Jewish calendar—Khalil denounced what he called the “Zionist project,” prayed that God would “remember that Israel is committing genocide,” and called upon God to “hold Israel accountable.”
This week, Mavey Books “liked” a YDSA event scheduled for October 7—an event being held not despite the significance of that date, but because of it. YDSA could have scheduled its anti-Zionist event on any one of the other 364 days of the year. Instead, it chose October 7.
I would like to think that when Senator Cappelletti promoted Mavey Books in April, she had no way of knowing that the store would become so active in promoting Khalil—or that it would later lend its name, by liking it on Facebook, to an event that glorifies the horror of October 7. If Mavey had simply put Khalil’s book on the shelf, we wouldn’t be talking about the store or the senator’s promotion of it.
But Senator Cappelletti now knows how extensively Mavey Books has embraced Mahmoud Khalil and his message, and she knows what he stands for. She knows what Khalil said on Yom Kippur. And she knows that Mavey Books “liked” the YDSA event that celebrates what happened on October 7.
And she has said nothing about it.
If Senator Cappelletti thinks her silence about Mavey Books is the equivalent of not taking sides, she couldn’t be more wrong.
Her silence is not neutrality.
No one is asking the senator to display an Israeli flag on her website or hang one at the entrance to her office. What I am asking for—and I speak only for myself, although I would be very surprised if there weren’t thousands of people in her district, Jews and non-Jews alike, who share these sentiments—is for Senator Cappelletti to acknowledge what has become increasingly difficult to ignore: the owners of Ardmore’s charming little Mavey Books have aligned themselves with an ideology that espouses hatred and terrorism.
This raises an obvious question: Is there anything Mavey Books—or any other business or organization Senator Cappelletti previously promoted—could say or do that would prompt her to publicly express her disapproval?
It stretches credulity to suggest the answer is nothing.
Whatever that something is, Mavey Books’ enthusiastic promotion of Mahmoud Khalil apparently wasn’t enough.
Its “like” of an event that glorifies the slaughter of October 7 apparently wasn’t enough either.
If Amanda Cappelletti could ever say she didn’t understand the full significance of her support for Mavey Books, she can’t say that now.
Her continued silence is a choice, a choice that reflects her values.
Contact Senator Amanda Cappelletti
Readers who would like to share their views with Senator Cappelletti can contact her directly:
Email: cappelletti@pasenate.com
Wynnewood District Office: 50 E. Wynnewood Road, Suite 210, Wynnewood, PA 19096
Phone: 610-896-2832
Norristown District Office: 221 W. Main Street, Norristown, PA 19401
Phone: 610-768-4200
Harrisburg Office: 183 Main Capitol Building, Harrisburg, PA 17120-3017
Phone: 717-787-5544
Text: 610-590-8799
Official Contact Page: pasenatorcappelletti.com/contact
Leave a Reply