French court finds publisher guilty of anti-Semitism

04 November 2005

November 04, 2005

A French court has found the Al-Oalam publishing house guilty of anti-Semitism. The court ruled against Al-Oalam for publishing the book “The Other Face of Israel” by Israel Shamir. Publisher Abdelila Cherifi Alaoui was sentenced to three months in jail and fined some € 10,000 (US$ 12,000) in damages, and the book has been banned from stores. The court ruled that the book was inciting hatred against people based on their religious belief. The publisher was also ordered to pay € 10,000 in damages and legal fees to the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism, which brought the suit. The court’s decision was based on the fact that the term “Jews” is always used in the plural in the book, in order to present Jews as world dominators who could trigger a third world war. The judges also found that the author resorted to the oldest forms of anti-Semitic discourse, including citations from “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”