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| ‘Worst Offender 2016’ is Iran, ‘Runner Up’ is Egypt |
For the 14th year, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre is the only non-governmental organization to monitor antisemitic hate and incitement to violence on the stands of the Frankfurt Book Fair, (FBF), the world's largest with over 7,000 exhibitors from more than 100 countries.
Continuing its cooperation of last year with the Wiesenthal Centre, on the 18 October eve of this 2016 Fair opening, the FBF authorities made a sweep, confiscating several clearly antisemitic titles from stands identified as violating their exhibitors’ contractual commitment against incitement to hate or violence.
The Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels noted that these apparently included:
Egypt Collective stand (Hall 5.1 E146):
- The reprinted classic “In Hidden Corners: Revealing Secrets of the Jews”, published by the Egyptian National Library and Archives (Dar Al-Kitab) in 2014. This is based on “Jews and Opportunists: Judaism in Egypt and Syria” by Georges Corneilhan of 1893, translated from the original French into Arabic by Naguib Al-Hajj in 1989. This new edition reappeared at the 2014 Kuwait and 2015 Cairo Book Fairs.
(SEE PHOTO 1 on PANEL)
Syria collective stand (Hall 5.1/A 152), with two titles of Dar Ghar Hira Publishing:
- “The Day of Rage - End of the State of Israel” by Dr. Safar bin Abdul-Rahman al-Hawali <http://www.alhawali.com/main/5898-2--يوم-الغضب-هل-بدأ-بانتفاضة-رجب--.html>
- “The Tidings in Sabbatai Zevi and Abdullah Ibn Saba” by Ahmed Mahmoud El Shorbagy (Jewish Conspiracies against Muslim world) <http://www.gharhira.com/arbook/g-3.html>
Syrian books, for the last few years, were largely displayed on the Lebanon collective stand under Beirut accommodation addresses. The present stand would seem to indicate the current empowered role of the Assad regime.
(SEE PHOTOS 2 and 3 on PANEL)
“Our own monitoring uncovered the titles below that eluded the official action,” stated Samuels:
Egypt (Hall 5.1 A141) Sama for Publishing and Distribution, Cairo:
- “Marionette” by Rida Suleiman (2014) (Who was pulling the strings behind the Egyptian revolution of 2011, book cover features Star of David). The author claims that the Egyptian (and Arab) revolutions were just steps in a greater plot to destabilize those countries for the security of Israel and relocate the Palestinians in Gaza to Sinai.
- “The Road to Rumiyah” by Dr. Fawzy Suwaid 2015 (Rumiyah is Classical Arabic for Rome). This novel presents religious figures interpreting religious prophecies/texts to justify their own causes at the expense of others.
(SEE PHOTOS 4 and 5 on PANEL)read more
Egypt (Hall 5.1 A 147) Al Ahram:
- “Hijacking the Revolution...The Conspiracy Documents from January 25 until June 3” by Atef Al Ghomri, Al Ahram, 2015. This book features the US as behind the Arab Spring revolutions to create a Greater Middle East project with Israeli aggrandizement as the objective.
- “The American Agenda in the Maghreb countries... Strategies to Achieve Colonial Control” by Dr. Ali Mohammed Salem El-Ahwal, Publisher New Link International, 2016.
- On 11 October 2016, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture honoured novelist Dr. Sherif Shaban for "his effort to enrich the cultural life in Egypt through his novel ‘Daughter of Zion’, the first Egyptian novel describing the weakness of the Israeli society". The story opens with the anti-Semitic Damascus Blood Libel affair, describing the incident and then continues to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Samuels asked the Ministry of Culture representative if “Daughter of Zion” was exhibited on any of the Egyptian stands? He was directed to Al Ahram (see above), where he was given a CD-ROM on which it is featured.
(SEE PHOTOS 6, 7 and 8 on PANEL)
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