The Anti-Defamation League called on the Sultanate of Oman Qaboos bin Said to remove anti-Semitic works from the country’s annual book fair.
Copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and Henry Ford’s The International Jew are on sale at the 2019 Muscat International Book Fair, which is underway until March 2.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, whose author is unknown,blames Jews for wanting to take over the world, while Mein Kampf is Hitler’s 1925 autographical book and outlines his plans for a Germany that ostracized those, especially Jews, who were not of the Aryan race. The International Jew is a four-volume set of pamphlets or booklets that chronicles what Ford described as the “Jewish menace.”
“At a time when anti-Semitism is surging in the Middle East and around the world, it is deeply troubling that Oman’s government-sanctioned book fair is providing a platform for some of the worst conspiratorial anti-Semitic titles of the 20th century,” said ADL CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt. “The Sultanate of Oman needs to ensure that such intolerant books are swiftly removed and that this event does not provide a platform to those who would promote anti-Semitism in future years.”
This development comes as Israel has been seeking a normalization of ties with Oman despite the latter’s foreign minister denying so.
In October, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin visited Oman and met with its ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has led his country for nearly 50 years. It was the first visit by an Israeli prime minister to the country since Shimon Peres in 1996.
