Anti-Zionist Arab Books Criticized at Fair

[drdon326]

Publishers from Arab countries came to the Frankfurt Book Fair as the guests of honor, seeking understanding and tolerance as well as a greater appreciation of Arab culture and literature. But several publishers, as well as the book fair itself, have attracted criticism and charges of anti-Semitism for their display of at least a dozen books with strong anti-Zionist themes.

Leaders of the official Arab delegation to the fair said on Friday that they were not promoting anti-Jewish views, adding that while some books did contain anti-Zionist arguments, they were not racist. And book fair officials said that while they regretted that a small percentage of the 25,000 books on display from Arab publishers and writers were highly critical of Israel, the books did not appear to violate German laws against the incitement of hatred or crime.

After being notified of complaints about the books from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the international Jewish rights organization, the Frankfurt prosecutor's office said on Friday that it did not have sufficient information to open a formal investigation, in part because the texts of the books were in Arabic and had not yet been translated.

The argument over the Arab books escalates a controversy that has existed almost since the book fair announced two years ago that it was seeking to have "the Arab World" serve as guests of honor at the fair, the industry's most important market for the sale and purchase of international publishing rights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/09/books/09fair.html?oref=login

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[drdon326]

1. Racist ???.....read on....

"On the cover of one of the books, displayed by the Dar Tlass publishing house of Damascus, Syria, was a photograph of the World Trade Center exploding in flames during the 9/11 attacks. Overlaying the photo of the Twin Towers is a Star of David and a fingerprint.

Nearby, another book showed a Star of David covering the Statue of Liberty, which held, instead of a torch, a sword that dripped blood.

At the exhibit sponsored by the Egyptian Publishers Association, the Cairo-based publisher Dar el-Shorouk displayed "The Zionist Message and Its Terms," whose title was translated by an Arabic representative of the publisher and whose cover portrays a field of Stars of David and menorahs. The book's author, Abdel-Wahab el-Messeri, also wrote the "Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism," which some critics have said contains anti-Jewish themes."

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probably a better read in the original german.

[drdon326]

2. Nothing like the new double-speak....

'no....its not anti-semitic.....no,no,no....its JUST anti-zionism'.


History returns in new clothes.

[Forkboy]

3. Hey,did ya hear about the 13 year old girl the IDF shot

5 times in the head...cool huh?

History returns in new clothes.

You apparently dont know how right you are.

[Djinn]

4. don this is getting ridiculous

so fucking what that there are books out there that are distinctly and overtly anti-semitic, there are also plenty of books/articles etc that are distinctly and overtly racist towards arabs/muslims - there are TONNES of them on sites that you often use as sources, I can't beleive you've missed the all "Islam is an inherently violent religion" pieces on that trash jerwishworldreview.

You demand everyone else expresses outrage over each and every Palestinian crime yet you are completely and utterly silent on the crimes of Israel, each and EVERY time.

Look to the beam, don.