Wiesenthal Centre Helps Keep Hate Out of Frankfurt Book Fair

April 4, 2006

Simon Wiesenthal Centre
European Office, registered as Non-profit organization in France under the
law of 1901
64 avenue Marceau 75008 Paris
Tel: +33-147237637 - Fax: +33-147208401-
http://www.wiesenthal.com

Wiesenthal Centre Assists in Keeping Hate Out of Frankfurt Book Fair

Paris

In a letter to the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, responded to a request of the Book Fair's President, Juergen Boos, to assist in barring hate from the next Fair in October.

Samuels exposed a number of texts displayed at the 12th Casablanca Book and Publishers' Fair, held in Morocco, 10-19 February 2006 (photo attached):

—THE PROTOCOLS OF THE SAGES OF ZION, updated by Ahmed Gad, published by Dar Al Ghad Al Gadid (The New Tomorrow), El Mansoura, Egypt. The book attributes the 9/11 attacks to the Jews and calls for their murder as they are held to be the perpetrators of world conflagration.

—MEIN KAMPF, updated, published by Dar Al Kitab Al Arabi of Cairo, Egypt, and Damascus, Syria.
This edition celebrates the notorious "Horst Wessel Lied", "When Jewish blood spurts from under the knife, things will be twice as good as before."

—THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE NATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, published also by Al Kitab Al Arabi of Cairo and Damascus.

—THE PARTITION PLAN FOR THE ARAB NATION. WHO AFTER IRAQ? By Mohammed Ibrahim Bassiouni, same publisher, Al Kitab Al Arabi.  This book presents American Jewry as responsible for 9/11 as also for the war in Iraq, and their bloody plan to conquer the Arab world.

—THE MESSIAH EXPECTED IN THE IRAQ WAR, same publisher, Al Kitab Al Arabi.  How the Americans and the Jews insult Mohammed and are preparing a war against the Moslems to hasten the return of the Messiah.

—GEOGRAPHICAL ATLAS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD, published by Dar Ash-Sharq Al Arabi of Aleppo, Syria.
Note pages 110 - 111, the borders of "Palestine" wipe Israel off the map of the region.

—THE WORLD MAP, distributed by Librairie El Mohammedia, Habous, Morocco. In this case, "Palestine" wipes Israel off the map of the world.

The Centre urged President Boos "to bar the above four publishers/distributors under the Frankfurt Book Fair's contractual conditions that prohibit incitement to hate and violence."

Samuels added, "Indeed, to permit the display of such texts in Frankfurt would violate German law and European Union conventions."

The Centre committed itself to "continue its monitoring to assist in keeping hate out of the Fair."

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33 6 09 77 01 58.

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Response to Dr. Samuels' letter from Frankfurt Book Fair Director, Juergen Boos:

Thursday, 6 April 2006

Dear Dr. Samuels,

Thank you very much for informing us about the display of the below mentionned titles in Casablanca. None of these publishers has exhibited in the past years at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Nevertheless, we will immediately inform the Frankfurt Senior Public Prosecutor about this, so he is aware that these publications might circulate in Germany as well.

Be assured that the Frankfurt Book Fair will assist the Senior Public Prosecutor on identifying any texts which would violate German and/or European law. A publisher undertaking this on purpose, risks to be banned from the Frankfurt Book Fair and also being formally charged by the German jurisdiction. 

Yours sincerely

Juergen Boos
Direktor Frankfurter Buchmesse