| The Protocols |
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| First publication ofThe Protocols |
| Writers, editors, and publishers associated withThe Protocols |
| Debunkers ofThe Protocols |
| Commentaries onThe Protocols |
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan to achieve global domination. The text was fabricated in theRussian Empire, and was first published in 1903. While there is continued popularity ofThe Protocols in nations from South America to Asia, since the defeat ofNazi Germany,Fascist Italy, andImperial Japan inWorld War II, governments or political leaders in most parts of the world have generally avoided claims thatThe Protocols represent factual evidence of a real Jewish conspiracy. The exception to this is the Middle East, where a large number ofArab andMuslim regimes and leaders have endorsed them as authentic. Past endorsements ofThe Protocols from PresidentsGamal Abdel Nasser andAnwar Sadat ofEgypt, Iraqi President Arif, KingFaisal ofSaudi Arabia, and ColonelMuammar al-Gaddafi ofLibya, among other political and intellectual leaders of the Arab world, are echoed by 21st century endorsements from theGrand Mufti ofJerusalem, SheikhEkrima Sa'id Sabri, andHamas, to the education ministry ofSaudi Arabia.[1]
Aspopular opposition to Israel spread across the Middle East in the years following its creation in 1948, many Arab governments funded new printings of theProtocols and taught them in their schools as historical fact. They have been accepted as such by manyIslamist organizations, such asHamas andIslamic Jihad. A 2005 report by theIntelligence and Terrorism Information Center found that Arabic editions issued in the Middle East were being sold as far away as London.[2] There are at least nine different Arabic translations of theProtocols and more editions than in any other language including German.[3] TheProtocols also figure prominently in the antisemitic propaganda distributed internationally by the Arab countries and have spread to other Muslim countries, such asPakistan,Malaysia, andIndonesia.[3]
TheProtocols, together with other antisemitic materials published there, is distributed throughout theArab world.[4]In 1997, the two-volume 8th edition of theProtocols, translated and edited by 'Ajaj Nuwaihed, was published byMustafa Tlass's publishing house and exhibited and sold at the Damascus International Book Fair (IBF) and at the Cairo IBF. At the 2005 Cairo IBF, a stand of the Syrian publisher displayed a new, 2005 edition of theProtocols authorized by the Syrian Ministry of Information.[5] In Syria, government-controlled television channels occasionally broadcast mini-series concerning theProtocols of the Elders of Zion, along with several other anti-semitic themes.[6][citation needed]
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In a 1958 interview, PresidentGamal Abdel Nasser of theUnited Arab Republic recommended Karanjia to read the Antisemitic hoax,the Protocols of the Elders of Zion[7]
TheProtocols were featured in a 1960 article published by Salah Dasuqi, military governor ofCairo, inal-Majallaaa, the official cultural journal.[3] In 1965, the Egyptian government released an English-language pamphlet titledIsrael, the Enemy of Africa and distributed it throughout the English-speaking countries of Africa. The pamphlet used theProtocols andThe International Jew as its sources and concluded that all the Jews were cheats, thieves, and murderers.[3]
The firstIranian edition of theProtocols was issued during the summer of 1978 before theIranian Revolution after which theProtocols were widely publicized by theIranian government. A publication calledImam, published by the Iranian embassy in London, quoted extensively from theProtocols in its issues of 1984 and 1985.[3] In 1985 a new edition of theProtocols was printed and widely distributed by theIslamic Propagation Organization, International Relations Department, inTehran. TheAstan Quds Razavi Foundation inMashhad, Iran, one of the wealthiest institutions inIran, financed publication of theProtocols in 1994. Parts of theProtocols were published by the dailyJomhouri-e Eslami in 1994, under the headingThe Smell of Blood, Zionist Schemes.Sobh, a far right monthly newspaper, published excerpts from theProtocols under the headingThe text of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion for establishing the Jewish global rule in its December 1998 – January 1999 issue, illustrated with a caricature of the Jewish snake swallowing the globe.
Iranian writer and researcherAli Baqeri, who researched theProtocols, finds their plan forworld domination to be merely part of an even more grandiose scheme, saying in Sobh in 1999:
"The ultimate goal of the Jews ... after conquering the globe ... is to extract from the hands ofthe Lord manystars andgalaxies".
In April 2004, the Iranian television station Al-Alam broadcastAl-Sameri wa Al-Saher, a series that reported as fact several conspiracy theories aboutthe Holocaust, Jewish control ofHollywood, and theProtocols.[8] The Iran Pavilion of the 2005Frankfurt Book Fair had theProtocols, as well asThe International Jew available.[9] In 2008The Secret of Armageddon, an Iranian TV "documentary" claiming that "a Jewish Plan for the Genocide of Humanity," includes a conspiracy for the takeover of Iran by local Jewish andBaháʼí Faith communities was based on the Protocols.[10]
On the other hand, Iranian authorAbdollah Shahbazi, known for his historical reports of several important events of Iran's history, has denied the authenticity of theProtocols officially on his website and has referred to several international investigations as the basis of his claim.[11]
According toItamar Marcus thePNA frequently used theProtocols in the media and education under their control and some Palestinian academics presented the forgery as a plot upon which Zionism is based. For example, on January 25, 2001, the official PNA dailyAl-Hayat al-Jadida cited theProtocols on itsPolitical National Education page to explain Israel's policies:
Disinformation has been one of the bases of moral andpsychological manipulation among the Israelis ... TheProtocols of the Elders of Zion did not ignore the importance of using propaganda to promote the Zionist goals. The second protocol reads: "Through the newspapers we will have the means to propel and to influence". In the twelfth protocol: "Our governments will hold the reins of most of the newspapers, and through this plan we will possess the primary power to turn to public opinion."
Later that year the same newspaper wrote: "The purpose of the military policy is to impose this situation on the residents and force them to leave their homes, and this is done in the framework of theProtocols of Zion..."[12][13][14]
TheGrand Mufti ofJerusalemSheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri appeared on the Saudi satellite channelAl-Majd on February 20, 2005, commenting on the assassination of the formerLebanese Prime MinisterRafik Hariri. "Anyone who studiesThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion and specifically theTalmud," he said, "will discover that one of the goals of these Protocols is to cause confusion in the world and to undermine security throughout the world."[15]
In 2005, it was reported that thePalestinian Authority was referring to theProtocols in a textbook for 10th grade students. After media exposure, the PA issued a revised edition of the textbook that does not include references to theProtocols.[16]
The New York Times reported that Palestinian Authority Minister of InformationNabil Shaath removed an Arabic translation of theProtocols of the Elders of Zion from his ministry's website.[17]
In August 2012, theConference of European Rabbis appealed toApple Inc to stop selling an Arabic-language version ofThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion which was being sold viaiTunes. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt explained that to "disseminate such hateful invective as a mobile app is dangerous and inexcusable."Yuli Edelstein, Israel's Minister of Public Information and Diaspora Affairs, supported the appeal, explaining that "they wouldn't allow pedophilia and pornography on their networks. They shouldn't allow xenophobia, anti-Semitism or racism."[18]
TheProtocols is published inGreece by several ultra-right-wing publishers such as Ouranos and Mpimpis. During the last decade, the book has received wide promotion by parliamentary right-wing extremists, most notablyKyriakos Velopoulos.[citation needed]
In 2010, an Italian editor has been convicted on charges oflibel for publishing theProtocols. He had been sued by the Jewish community ofTurin.[19]
TheProtocols have had a tumultuous history in the United States ever sinceHenry Ford began publishing extracts and commentaries of them inThe Dearborn Independent's columnThe International Jew. Later, he reprinted the commentaries in a multi-volume series, also calledThe International Jew.[20]
TheProtocols were republished as fact in 1991 inMilton William Cooper's conspiracy bookBehold a Pale Horse, though Cooper himself holds theIlluminati and not the Jews at fault.
The Americanretail chainWal-Mart was criticized for sellingThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion on its website with a description that suggested it might be genuine.[21] It was withdrawn from sale in September 2004, as 'a business decision'. It was distributed in the United States byLouis Farrakhan'sNation of Islam.[22]
In 2002, thePaterson, New Jersey–basedArabic language newspaperThe Arab Voice published excerpts from theProtocols as true.[23]The paper's editor and publisherWalid Rabah defended himself from criticism with the protestation that "some major writers in the Arab nation accept the truth of the book."[24]
In 2011, Christian writer and conspiracy theoristTexe Marrs published an edition of theProtocols, with a foreword of his own authorship and additional notes byHenry Ford.[25]
Howard Sachar describes the allegations of global Jewish conspiracy resurrected during theSoviet "anti-Zionist" campaign in the wake of theSix-Day War:
In late July 1967, Moscow launched an unprecedented propaganda campaign against Zionism as a "world threat." Defeat was attributed not to tiny Israel alone, but to an "all-powerful international force" ... In its flagrant vulgarity, the new propaganda assault soon achieved Nazi-era characteristics. The Soviet public was saturated with racist canards. Extracts from Trofim Kichko's notorious 1963 volume,Judaism Without Embellishment, were extensively republished in the Soviet media. Yuri Ivanov'sBeware: Zionism, a book essentially replicatedThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was given nationwide coverage.[26]
Despite stipulations against fomenting hatred based on ethnic or religious grounds (Article 282 of RussiaPenal Code), theProtocols have enjoyed numerous reprints in the nationalist press after thedissolution of the Soviet Union.In 2003, one century after the first publication of theProtocols, an article[27] in the most popular Russian weeklyArgumenty i Fakty referred to it as a "peculiar bible of Zionism" and showed a photo of the First Zionist Congress of 1897. The co-president of theNational-Patriot Union of RussiaAlexander Prokhanov wrote: "It does not matter whether theProtocols are a forgery or a factual conspiracy document." The article also contained refutation of the allegations by the president of the Russian Jewish congress Yevgeny Satanovsky.
As recently as 2005, theProtocols was "a frequent feature inPatriarchate churches".[28][29] On January 27, 2006, members of thePublic Chamber of Russia andhuman rights activists proposed to establish a list of extremist literature whose dissemination should be formally banned for uses other than scientific research.
By the decision of theLeninsky City District Court ofOrenburg dated 26 July 2010, theProtocols of the Elders of Zion was considered an extremist publication. However, the court did not ban the work itself as such, but the pamphlet. According to the national standard of the Russian Federation (ГОСТ 7.60-2003), a pamphlet means a book publication with a volume of more than 4, but not more than 48 pages.[30]
In March 2011, the Russian human rights movement 'For Human Rights' and member of theCivic Chamber of the Russian FederationAlla Gerber appealed to the prosecutor's office of theNorthern Administrative Okrug ofMoscow with a demand to stop the distribution of theProtocols. The prosecutor's office rejected the demand stating that the Institute of Psychology of theRussian Academy of Sciences conducted a psycholinguistic and socio-psychological examination of the texts. According to conclusions of the experts,Protocols has a critical historical-educational and political-educational focus and that "there is no information in the book that encourages action against other nationalities, social and religious groups or individuals as its representatives."[31]
In April 2011, theMinistry of Foreign Affairs of Russia placed an order for the supply of sets of spiritual and moral literature to Russian diplomatic missions, which included the booksThe Great within the Small and Antichrist bySergei Nilus, theProtocols and other antisemitic publications, which resulted in public outcry. In May 2011,Evgeny Velikhov, head of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, wrote a letter toProsecutor-General of RussiaYury Chaika, demanding the labelling of theProtocols as extremist, in order to get it banned from publication.[32][33]
In November 2012, theProtocols was added to theFederal List of Extremist Materials under the entry number 1496 by the decision of the Leninsky City District Court of Orenburg.[34]
The Protocols have been in circulation inMalaysia since 1983.[35]Mahathir Mohamad distributed copies ofThe Protocols during his years in office as prime minister of the country.[36] In 2006, Masterpiece Publications issued a version of theProtocols under the titleWorld Conquest Through World Jewish Government (ISBN 983-3710-28-X).
An edition was published with the titleJewish conspiracy and the Muslim world under the editorship ofMisbahul Islam Faruqi in the late 1960s and republished in 2001.[37][38]
To a great degree, the text is still accepted as truthful in the Middle East, South America, and Asia, especially inJapan where variations on theProtocols have frequently made the bestseller lists.[39]
InTurkey,The Protocols are particularly popular withultra-nationalist andIslamist circles.The Protocols was first published in the magazineMillî İnkılâp (National Revolution) in 1934 and triggered theThracian pogroms (Trakya Olayları) the same year. It ran through over 100 editions from 1943 to 2004 and remains a best-seller.[40]
On September 14, 2005, two anti-Semitic books (The Protocols of the Elders of Zion andMein Kampf, published in Egypt and Lebanon) were purchased at two different bookstores in central London, both located in areas with large Arabic-Muslim populations. In our assessment anti-Semitic books in Arabic are sold in other London bookstores, as are radical Islamic publications.
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