Israeli Bookseller Cancels Charlie Hebdo Event; Palestinians March in Ramallah

Israel’s largest bookseller has cancelled plans to hold a special event featuring the sale of the first edition of Charlie Hebdo since the Paris massacre and will sell it only by Internet. The Steimatzky chain has carried the French satirical magazine for years and says it will continue to do so. But the decision to pull the event at its flagship store followed a warning by an Arab Israeli member of parliament that if the event is held, “the Israeli government and Steimatzky will be responsible for every consequence.” The daily Haaretz reported that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the right-wing “Israel is Our Home” party, instructed the youth arm of the party to purchase thousands of copies of the magazine and distribute them at the Steimatzky location where the event was called-off. The first edition of the magazine since terrorists slaughtered 12 at its Paris headquarters saw a run of nearly 8 million copies compared to its normal circulation of 60,000. Meanwhile, in Ramallah on Saturday, a crowd estimated in the thousands marched in the West Bank cities of Ramallah Hebron, to protest the use of a cartoon likeness of the Prophet Mohammed on the cover of the new Charlie Hebdo edition.  The rallies were organized by an Islamist group called the Liberation Party.