Palestinians accuse PA of banning books .  NABLUS , West Bank 1996-08-22  A West Bank bookseller charged on Thursday that the Palestinian Information Ministry has forced him to sign an undertaking not to distribute books written by critics of Israeli-PLO self-rule deals .  " They made me sign an undertaking not to sell the books to anyone at the risk of legal action .  One official told me ' you have to either destroy the books or return them to Amman ' , " Daoud Makkawi , owner of the Nablus-based al-Risala bookshop , told Reuters .  He said ministry officials made him sign this a few weeks ago after he brought about a dozen copies from Jordan of a book by Edward Said , a prominent scholar at New York City 's Columbia University .  Said , a U.S. citizen of Palestinian origin , has been an outspoken critic of the 1993 Israeli-PLO self-rule deal and has written at least two books on the accord .  On Wednesday a bookseller in the West Bank town of Ramallah said police about a month ago confiscated several copies of two of Said 's books on the Israel-PLO self-rule deals .  Palestinian Information Ministry Director-General Mutawakel Taha denied that ministry officials forced anyone to sign any undertaking and insisted that the Palestinian Authority has no plans to censor books .  " There is no strategy to ban books or to suppress freedom of expression in any form whatsoever , " Taha told Reuters .  But Taha said that the absence of relevent legislations may have resulted in some mistakes by some security officials .  " This may explain some mistakes against some journalists and writers , " he said .  Daoud said books by other authors , including British Journalist Patrick Seale , were also banned .  He said that security officials often visit his shop to make sure he was not selling the books .  " I think this is a bad beginning .  If we have confidence , why should we be afraid of the other opinion ? "  Daoud said .  Thousands of books were banned from sale in the West Bank and [START_ENT] Gaza Strip [END_ENT] by the Israeli military authorities before the Jewish state handed over parts of the two areas to the PLO under a self-rule deal in 1994 .
Gaza Strip