    A book to be burned:

    L’Autre Visage d’Israel (The other face of Israel, or Flowers of Galilee)
    by 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 condemned 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 condemned the manager of the
    publishing house Al Qalam to a suspended sentence of three months in
    prison 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 the 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 of world’, within an overall framework of a
    ‘third world war’ currently being waged, 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 been conjured up by
    the Tsar’s secret service, 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 that it was authentic. In The
    Other Face of Israel, Israel Shamir says on page 282: ‘the Protocols
    ought to be regarded as a political lampoon’.

    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.