Paris, 17 January 2022

Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, noted that “this is the 8th year of our monitoring antisemitic publications at seven Arab Book Fairs. Most, this year, were clean in the spirit of the Abraham Accords.”

Qatar is hardly one of those countries. Its array of antisemitic books has even been displayed on its Governmental stand at the Frankfurt Buchmesse. This year, it contained the most notorious classic of Jew-hatred, Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” on the Jordanian Al Ahlia publisher stand.

The Fair opened on 13 January and will close on the 23rd. Ten Embassies are participating: the United States, Russia, Italy, France, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, South Korea, Syria and Palestine.

Qatar and the US are celebrating 50 years of bilateral relations and the US Embassy is this year’s “Guest of Honour.”

The official catalogue claims that “the Doha International Book Fair is a showcase... that reflects human creative and reflective knowledge... spreading the light!”

The darkness, however, can be found at the stand of Al Ahlia for Publishing and Distribution - Jordan / Al Dar Al Ahlia Bookstore.

“We call on Qatar’s Minister of Culture, H.E. Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali, to remove “Mein Kampf” and make a sweep of recidivist stands from the Fair, and to inform the US Guest of Honour accordingly,” concluded Samuels.

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“For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.” (Simon Wiesenthal, 1908-2005)