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The 16th Year of Wiesenthal Centre Chasing Hate from the Frankfurt Book Fair

October 14, 2018

“Worst Offender Award 2018” goes to Malaysia; “Runner-Up” to Iran.


For the 16th year, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre is the only non-governmental organization to monitor incitement to hate and violence on the display stands of the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF).

With over 7,400 exhibitors from 150 countries and over 300,000 visitors, it is dubbed “the Olympics of Book Fairs.”

Director Jurgen Boos opened this 70th anniversaries of the Fair, as also of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by French Jewish jurist, René Cassin, by stating: “Where verbal abuse starts, aggression follows.”

European Union Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Security, Federica Mogherini, recalled how in Germany and Italy: “when books were burned, Jewish writers were burned.”

















Shimon Samuels with Frankfurt Book Fair Director, Jurgen Boos

“We monitor over 300 stands known for antisemitic titles year after year. We denounce delinquent publishers to the Frankfurt authorities as a violation of their contractual obligations to the Fair that prohibit incitement,” explained Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Centre’s Director for International Relations.

The Fair makes its own prior sweep, but requires the Centre’s experience and professional exposure, in the hope that the Fair will, one day, be hate-free,” continued Samuels.



Stand 4.0-B74 - Malaysia

1) Dr. M: What is of Interest to Young People?” by Chedet Mat Rodi (publisher: Nubook Press, Selangor, Malaysia, 2016)
A lengthy interview of 93 year old Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, the only government leader who unshamedly admits to being an antisemite. In a chapter entitled “Condemning Israel’s Cruelty to Palestine,” he is quoted from an October 16, 2003 speech to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit of 57 Islamic countries, “...the Jews had been crippled 2,000 years ago. Each year they were killed by European Christians who regard Jews as traitors who led Jesus to be crucified.”
He likewise declared, ",,,today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

2) “Gaza - The First Moments of Palestinian Occupation,” by IF Moses (publisher: Iman Publications, Selangor, Malaysia, 2018)
“Gaza and 15 siblings live happily in Palestine - fishing, trading bread and under the Ottoman rule building the Hejaz Railway, a railway project from Istanbul to Medina to ease the journey for pilgrims.”
“While they live happily, there are evil tricks being planned by Israel and Theodor Herzl to conquer Palestine.”
“And who would have thought, not only Israel and Herzl had an evil plan. There are also enemies among ourselves trying to bring down the Islamic caliphate at that time. But who? And why?” (excerpts from back cover)

Stand 5.0-B132 Association of Islamic Revolution Publishers, Iran

3) “From Gaza to Jerusalem: Islamic Resistance in Palestine,” (Barham Didemum Publishing, 2017)
“The issue of Al-Quds [Jerusalem] in the last century has been the most important issue in the Muslim world... the top priority for our country... to release the Palestinian people from the clutches of Zionism... the Islamic resistance (Hezbollah) of Lebanon, the divine movement has expanded into occupied Palestine and the final solution to the Al-Quds issue... this collection comes from the centre of Islamic resistance to the Israeli invasion of Gaza.”

4) Ayatollah Khamenei on Palestine” (4th edition, Tehran)
The Iranian Supreme Leader presents methods and tactics to annihilate Israel. Its introduction is by Ali Akbar Velayati, former Iranian Minister of Defence, sought by INTERPOL for complicity in the 1994 AMIA Jewish Centre bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, leaving 85 dead and 300 wounded.

5) “Israeli Sadism - 50 Retaliations against the Fake Zionist Regime in Gaza”, by Asadollah Afshar (publisher: Safir Ardehal, Iran, 2014)
“...the history of the invasion and Zionist occupation of Palestine ... the news of the victory of the oppressed people of Gaza and its resistance movement...”

Stand 5.1-D133 - Arab Publisher’s Association, Egypt

6) Poster of “Jerusalem Eternal Capital of Palestine,” portraying the Temple Mount, thus impugning Egypt’s role in the Middle East peace process.

Stand 5.1-132 - Al-Ahram, Egypt

7) “Christian Zionism and the End of Man,” by Mohamed Amara Taqi Eddin (publisher: Al Ahram, Cairo)
”Christian Zionism defends Israel more than the Zionist Jews. Salvation cannot be achieved without helping the Jews settle in Palestine, and ending the existence of the Palestinians by murdering or expelling them, to pave way to build the temple. The book explains how the [Christian Zionist] movement... transformed Christianity from a peace-loving and forgiving message to an ideology of murder, destruction and revenge.” (excerpts from back cover)

Stand 5.1-A142 - Al Awam, Syria

8) “Out of the Frame - The struggle for Academic Oppression in Israel," by Ilan Pappe (translated by Maha Hassan Bahbouh, publisher: Dar Cadmus, Syria, 2018)
This study by Israeli post-Zionist historian, Ilan Pappe, is perfectly legitimate with no apparent intent to incite. An Arabic translation, however, published in Syria, might be argued to harden anti-Jewish stereotypes among some Arab readers.

Stand 3.1-A67 - Kube Publishers, UK

9) “Finding Peace in the Holy Land - A British Muslim Memoir,” by Lauren Booth (Kube Publishing, Leicester, UK, 2018)
The book’s title is inviting and, as such, is commended by our Centre. Similarly, this memoir, by former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s sister-in-law, is unquestionably legitimate with clearly no aim to incite. Certain references to Jews, however, e.g. “Jewish soldiers” in place of Israeli, could confuse some readers, just as “Jew, Zionist and Israeli” are often used interchangeably, as for example in British Labour Party circles.

Stand 5.1-A141 - Smoloskyp Publishers, Ukraine

10) “Symon Petliura: Fighting for the Freedom of Ukraine," by Serhii Lytvyn (Smoloskyp Publishers, Kiev, 2018)
A small nationalist stand, with few books, highlights this volume. Most historians consider Petliura as responsible for the murder of over 50,000 Jews in the 1917-1921 war with Soviet Russia. He was assassinated in Paris in 1926 by Sholom Schwarzbard, who lost fifteen family members in pogroms during Petliura’s rule of Ukraine. A French court acquitted Schwarzbard. This stand’s rehabilitation of a documented genocidist should be openly discussed by a round-table of historians programmed by the Fair.

This year’s “Wiesenthal Centre Worst Offender Award” goes to Malaysia.

Its “Runner-Up Award” to Iran.

For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at +33 609 770 158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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