Hate Within and Out of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025
A Report by Shimon Samuels and Alex Uberti
For more than two decades, we have been monitoring several Arab book fairs across the MENA region, as well as the international Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany (FBM – Frankfurter BuchMesse).
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 relaying genocidal narratives, but also books denying the Holocaust and promoting conspiracy theories, or others relaying defamatory antisemitic prejudices. In recent years, also books published in the US and the West have begun drawing our concern.
The “2025 Hate Prize” goes to an Egyptian publisher, Kotopia (part of the “Frankfurt Global Network” of small publishers), with books glorifying terrorists, the “Holy War” against Israel, and antisemitism, with titles such as:
“War of Liberation”, by Ayman K. Howera (Kotopia co-founder). This book considers war as the only means for Palestinian statehood, and incites the destruction of Israel, dubbed “a cancerous entity”.
“Liberating Al-Aqsa is the good tidings in the Qur’an”, by Seham Zohny. This book incites the invasion of Israel for the “liberation of Al-Aqsa” (Jerusalem), based on Quranic prophecies interpreted by radical Islamic scholars.
“Palestinian narrative – She was Infatuated with Love”, by Nardeen Abu-Nab’aah. This book narrates the story of terrorists and “martyrs” Yahya Ayyash, an infamous Hamas bomb-maker, and Muhammad al-Deif, commander-in-chief of the Qassam Brigades (the main perpetrators of 7 October), through the testimonies of their wives.
“2025 Runners-up Prize” goes to a handful of Western publishers who have an obsession for Zionism, portrayed through the lens of “apartheid”, “colonization” or “genocide”. They often collaborate with radical anti-Israel organizations, and de facto justify antisemitic hate, reverse responsibilities, condone terrorist actions.
A new “2025 Outsider Prize” goes to a pro-Palestinian collective staging a “boycott of the Frankfurt Book Fair” on the square facing the main entrance. At their “Palestinian liberatory Bookfair”, they showcase books whitewashing terrorist activities, glorifying Palestinian national-socialism, promoting BDS campaigns and the Sumud flotilla, favouring anti-Zionist historians and anti-colonial ideologists.
Among the books on display, a “Beginners Guide to Hamas”, which illustrates how the terrorist group “is largely guided by pragmatic aims” (sic!), and the “Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine”, the “revolutionary red-book” of the FPLP, the Marxist-Leninist group within the PLO, that had pioneered aircraft hijackings in the late 1960s and participated in the 7 October genocidal attack on Israel.
Detailed reports on books found at Arab Book Fairs and at the Frankfurt Book Fair are available at wiesenthal-europe.com, or on demand at: csweurope@gmail.com