Hate books removed
By Marc Shoffman - Wednesday 19th December 2007
Tesco followed the lead of WHSmith this week by removing a range of anti-semitic book from sale on its website.
TJ last week alerted the chains to the fact that their online facilities were peddling a number of publications alleging that Jews were plotting to take over the world and were responsible for all society’s ills. Among the books pulled from sale were the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Henry Ford’s The International Jew.
Meanwhile Play.com launched an investigation on Tueday after a TJ reader informed us that they also stocked the controversial publications. At least five versions of the Protocols were on sale, alongside the International Jew which claims: “Whichever way you turn to trace the harmful streams of influence that flow through society, you come upon a group of Jews.”
A spokesperson for the online retailer told TJ: "Play.com have suspended the sale of the books pending an investigation."
Concerns were also raised about Amazon.com, which was criticised for selling the Protocols when the Jewish News first investigated the sale of hate books online in 2005. This week, the site was still offering several anti-semitic texts, though they sought to justify their position. Alongside the Protocols a note reads: “As a bookseller, Amazon.co.uk strongly believes that people have the right to choose their own reading material. Our goal is to support freedom of expression and to provide customers with the broadest selection possible so they can find, discover, and buy any title they might be seeking. That selection includes some titles which many people, including many employees of Amazon.co.uk, may find distasteful or otherwise objectionable. However, Amazon.co.uk believes it is censorship to make a book unavailable to our customers because we believe its message to be repugnant.”
And the International Jew is accompanied by a description which claims, “Readers will be able to make their own judgements of this work, as some find it to be accurate while most have historically found Henry Ford's writings to be filled with inaccuracies and bigotry.”
Mark Gardner, Director of Communications for the Community Security Trust, told the Jewish News: “We congratulate the Jewish News for uncovering these hate books. It is crazy, however, that supposedly reputable book sellers seem to think that just because they are selling on the internet, they do not have a responsibility to monitor their own websites.”
