Probe launched into anti-Semitic literature on offer at Frankfurt Book Fair

04 November 2005

November 04, 2005

Peter Ripken, a district attorney in Germany, has launched a probe into charges that Iranian booksellers sold anti-Semitic literature at the Frankfurt Book Fair last month. Ripken, director of the event’s international department, was alerted by media reports that notorious volumes had been purchased from an Iranian bookseller. Fair organizers then contacted the district attorney’s office. Ripken said the incident could lead to Iran being banned from next year’s fair. Meanwhile, JTA reports that the Middle East Media Research Institute, which has offices in Berlin, also had expressed concern about books with anti-Semitic content sold by Arab publishers at the fair. According to reports, fair directors did not intervene out of concern for their relations with the Arab League, the "Jewish Telegraphic Agency" writes.