Moms feud over book
A Facebook group for Upper East Side moms is on the verge of closing down after a vicious row about children’s book “P is for Palestine.” The UES Mommas group — whose members made headlines in August after threatening each other with libel suits — erupted so violently over the weekend after an author posted about her book, “P is for Palestine,” that its founders temporarily put the whole group on ice and claim to be meeting with Facebook about how to resolve the mayhem. A longtime member of the group — which has about 27,000 members — said that the conversations usually tend toward complaining about Prada diaper bags and advertising for “Wii tutors” for the neighborhood’s little darlings. But open warfare broke out when author Gol
barg Bashi posted about her book, which she describes as an educational alphabet book about the disputed territory. Said a member, “It immediately went apes - - t. People were posting about it and calling each other anti-Israel and anti-Muslim.” One user posted, “I went through the book. It basically promotes hate towards those living in Israel, Jews and Christian Arabs.” We’re told that a furious Facebooker posted a page from the book that says, “I is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, if you are a kid or a grownup.” “That’s when it really went ballistic [in the group],” says our spy. We’re told that by Sunday evening, the moderators had “archived” the group, meaning that old posts were available but new ones aren’t permitted. We’re told the group is meeting with Facebook officials to discuss how to resolve the chaos, including the possibility of closing the group permanently. In August 2015, a lawyer for two members of the group sent cease and desist letters to other members who called them “racists” after a conversation about the Charlottesville, Va., riots went off the rails.