Echoes of Antisemitism at Frankfurt Book Fair 2026
PART 1
(Written with Alex Uberti)
Since the early 2000s, we have been monitoring Arab book fairs across the Mediterranean and in the Middle East to identify texts and publishers that peddle hate or incite violence, especially against the Jews. Each year, such texts would be reported to the Frankfurter BuchMesse (FBM) management in order to have them withdrawn from display or, in compliance with German law, reported to the local Hessen Police.
This year marks the final year for Juergen Boos as Director of the FBM. Over the past two decades, he has deployed his energy to make the FBM a safe place for all sensibilities. First and foremost, we wish to convey our heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Boos, who has been both professional and friendly. May his future endeavours be ever more successful.
Furthermore, we were pleased to see the Czech Republic as the FBM’s 2026 Honoured Guest, with author Radka Denemarkovà as ubiquitous host to the Fair’s events. It was a pleasure to see books and photos of Simon Wiesenthal’s old friend Vaclav Havel, but also of Milan Kundera, Jiri Weil, Ivan Klima, Josef Bor, Katerina Tuckova, Karel Polacek, Franz Kafka and others.
Last year, we did find several books within the FBM that we considered problematic, mostly related to the conflict triggered by the 7 October 2023 Hamas terror attack against Israel. Nevertheless, worst of all was the final day’s outdoor “Palestinian liberatory Bookfair” that called to “boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair” while carrying out dubious fundraising, distributing propaganda materials and promoting BDS campaigns or the Sumud flotilla, but also books whitewashing terrorist activities, or showcasing anti-Zionist historians and revolutionary ideologues.
Though they did announce their return in force for the full week, the pro-Palestinian lot was apparently not allowed to occupy the public space, practice their intimidatory and accusatory tactics, and repeat last year’s anti-Jewish hatefest.
At the end of the Fair, annually, we “award” a prize to the worst examples of hate, usually publishers linked to extremist groups glorifying jihadism, or others relaying genocidal narratives, but also books denying the Holocaust and promoting conspiracy theories, or others relaying defamatory antisemitic prejudices. Recently, also books published in the United States and the West have begun drawing our concern.
This year, traditionally problematic Arab publishers had very few books on display, so we had to dive deeper into their paper and online catalogues. We flagged the following publishers and books on their catalogues:
Mahrousa Publishing House, Cairo
1 – “The Jews in the History of Early Civilizations”, by Gustave Le Bon, translated by Adel Zuaiter. This book is to be considered both racist and antisemitic.
In fact, the book speculates that “the Jews, who had lived in isolation within ghettos,” failed to grasp the sense of nation-states built upon ethnic foundations, thus justifying the intense hatred toward them in Western Europe [not only!]. According to the publisher, “This led prominent thinkers… to view them as the root of all evil in the world.” Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931) – the father of “social evolutionary racialism” – combined late 19th-century pseudo-scientific theories and antisemitic tropes that were rife in France (see Édouard Drumont’s vitriolic “La France juive”, or the Dreyfus Affair). Le Bon’s text characterized the ancient Hebrews as an “inferior race”, and adopted the vocabulary of science (biology, evolution, psychology) to project an aura of objectivity regarding xenophobic and antisemitic prejudices. Today’s use of this book in the Arab world is instrumental to the overall discrimination of Jews, and the consequent delegitimization of their process of emancipation and nationhood, i.e. Zionism and Israel.
2 – “Palestine, an Uncomplicated Issue”, by Mohamed Salah [not the football star!]. The book basically seeks to justify and requalify the 7 October terrorist pogrom.
The cover of this book, as many others on the subject, has the outline of Israel replaced by “Palestine”, implicitly promoting the erasure of the Jewish State. The text explains that the century-long war in Palestine is “a result of the Zionist project”, that led to the inevitable path of “resistance and liberation” symbolized by the events of October 2023. The book is a classic example of reversal of responsibility.
Al Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations, Beirut
3 – “Hamas: Fusul Lem Tuktab“ (Hamas Unwritten Chapters), by Azzam Tamimi. The book glorifies terrorism.
This book charts the origins of Hamas among the Muslim Brotherhood, details the influence of its leadership in Syria and elsewhere, and sets out its internal structure and political objectives [i.e., regressing to pre-1948 Palestine]. The author of the book is UK-based Azzam Tamimi, who is known for his support for Hamas, his antisemitic comments and incitement to violence. In a 2025 public address, Tamimi explicitly claimed that “Zionism is a threat to humanity as a whole” and declared that “Zionism has been the reincarnation of Nazism; Israel is a reincarnation of the Third Reich.” During a conference in Vienna, Tamimi allegedly stated Jews should “sail on the sea in ships back to where they came from and all drown in it.” Tamimi also regularly evokes the “Jewish lobby” trope, denies Israel’s legitimacy to exist, calls for it destruction, and considers suicide bombing for Palestine a “noble cause”.
4 – “Arwah al-Tufan” (Souls of the Flood), by Osama Juma’a Alashqar. Glorification of terrorism.
With this book, the author illustrates “a journey through the lives of several souls of Operation al-Aqsa Flood” (the name given by Hamas to its assault on Israeli villages and a music festival on 7 October 2023). The murder, rape, maiming, humiliation, looting, arson and kidnapping of the living as well as the dead by Palestinian terrorists is seen by the author as an act of “epic heroism”. This is supposedly also the starting point of ensuing examples of “resistance” and “martyrdom” of “fighters, imams, preachers, doctors, children, professors…” celebrated by the author in a complete reversal of morality, intellect and responsibility.
5 – “The Road to Jerusalem”, by Mohsen Mohammad Saleh. Muslims worldwide are to launch a Holy War following the example of Islamic terrorist movements.
More specifically, this book illustrates “the role of the Islamic movement in uprisings, revolutions and resistance action against the British occupation and the Zionist entity, including the roles of Haj Amin al-Husaini [Hitler’s Arab henchman], the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Group ‘Al-Jihadiyyah’ [the ‘Black Hand’ terrorists of the 1930s], the Muslim Brotherhood [pan-Islamic ideology], Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement”… The author calls on Muslims to consider “this sacred issue, in accordance with their cultural heritage and identity.” It appears that the author would not accept any form of peaceful coexistence.
6 – “Dirasat fi al-Turath al Thaqafi li Madinat al-Quds” (Studies on the Cultural Heritage of the City of Jerusalem), by Mohsen Mohammad Saleh. Erasing Jewish cultural heritage.
Another book by a prolific author, this one evokes a near exclusive Arab-Muslim heritage of Jerusalem, barely mentions Christian heritage, and totally ignores any Jewish heritage [nothing new under the sun!]. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre – Europe has been confronting the Arab-Palestinian narrative against Israel and Judaism on the battlefield of the World Heritage Committee for decades. Every year, the Palestinian Authority tries to erode the recognition of historical Jewish or Christian sites and transform them into exclusively Arab-Muslim heritage (from the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron to the Kotel/Western Wall in Jerusalem, from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to the itinerary of Jesus in Judaea and Galilee). This is a pernicious cancel culture effort, performed at the heart of the international cultural body, UNESCO.
Al Zaytouna publishes also other questionable books, such as: “The Jewish Community in Russia: From Marginalization to Influence”, which peddles a conspiracy theory of Russian Jews who “control more than half of the economy of one of the world’s largest powers, Russia”; and “The Palestine Strategic Report 2024-2025” (another cover where “Palestine” replaces the outline of Israel), which describes the Gaza conflict in the terms of “Israeli aggression vs. Palestinian resistance”, ignoring decades of terrorism and genocidal intent culminating in the 7 October pogrom, that sparked the latest war.
CONTINUED IN PART 2
