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A book to be burned: The other face of Israel, Israel Adam Shamir

File http://quibla.net , 3 November 2005

 

‘What demon is annoying you and leading you to slander?

So a book displeases you; who is forcing you to read it?’

Boileau

 

Israel Shamir’s Parisian publisher sentenced to pay €23,500 and given a three-month suspended prison sentence.

 

It was an absolutely staggering piece of news that came down on the wires of the Agence France-Presse at 5.34pm on the 2nd of November. We reproduce it below as is.

 

On Wednesday, the court in Nanterre sentenced the manager of the publishing house Al Qalam to three months in prison, suspended, and to a fine of €10,000 for having published Israel Shamir’s anti-Semitic work, L’autre visage d’Israël (The Other Face of Israel); furthermore, the sale of he book has been prohibited.

 

The court found Abdelila Cherifi Alaoui, the manager of the publishing house, Al Qalam, guilty of ‘incitement to discrimination, exhortation to hatred and violence’ towards the membership of a religion.

 

In addition to the suspended three-month prison sentence and the fine of €10,000, Al Qalam will also have to pay €12,000 in damages and €1,500 in court expenses on behalf of the plaintiff, the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA). Lastly, the publisher has 30 days to withdraw the book from all bookshops, under a €100 penalty for every copy remaining on the shelves at the end of that period.

 

The court justified its judgement by the fact that ‘the expression “juifs”(Jews) is always used in the plural’ in the book, and they are portrayed as ‘dominating the world’, within an overall framework of a ‘third world war’ currently being carried out, according to the author. As well, the court finds that ‘the author reveals himself to be a rather old-fashioned anti-Semite, particularly where he quotes from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’

 

First published in 1905 in Russia, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a book announcing how the Jews intended to satisfy their hatred, destroy Christian civilisation and seize world power, went round the world, selling millions of copies.

 

Recognised as an obvious forgery since 1921 (it had apparently been conjured up by the secret service of the Tsar, who was opposed to any liberalisation of his rule of Russia and thus attempted to use it as proof of an alleged Zionist plot against him); it continues, however, to be widely used and presented as authentic by those wishing to justify their anti-Semitic claims. The Nazis, in particular, claimed it being authentic. In The Other Face of Israel, Israel Shamir says on page 282: “the Protocols ought to be regarded as a political pamphlet”.

 

Editor’s note from Quibla: This is an extremely worrisome sentence. It goes against judicial precedent with regards to criticism of religions, whatever they are. It is enough to read Shamir’s book to realise that the charges of ‘anti-Semitism’ are clearly unfounded. In the Elders of Zion and the Masters of Discourse, in 2002, Shamir tries to analyse why, one century after their first publication, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion continue to have such a success throughout the world. He concludes that it is because the Zionists behave from day to day as if they were applying the programme of domination described in this book. The publisher has been the victim of this iniquitous condemnation and will appeal. This matter is far from at an end.

 

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