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Amazon.com Withdraws Advertisement for Protocols of the Elders of Zion April 7, 2000 Amazon.com, the world’s leading internet bookseller, dropped this week a false advertisement for the anti-Semitic book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Although it's a pernicious fraud, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has unfortunately had a widespread influence--all of it evil--on the history of the 20th century. It was exposed as a hoax in 1921, yet it has been used as a justification for the Holocaust and for innumerable pogroms in Russia and the Soviet Union. It is today a best seller among neo-Nazis, and in such countries as Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and the Palestinians. Experts on anti-Semitism see it as one of the most dangerous books ever written, responsible for the loss of untold Jewish life. The Protocols was supposedly written in 1897 from the minutes of 24 secret meetings between Jews and Freemasons in which they conspired to bring down Western civilization and jointly rule the world. In reality, it is nothing of the sort. In 1921, Philip Graves of the London Times revealed The Protocols to be a fraud, showing it to be based on a French satire aimed at Napoleon III. In a series of side-by-side extracts printed in the Times, Graves demonstrated that the forgers took long portions of the original text, titled Dialogues in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, and simply replaced "France" with "Zion" and "The Emperor" with "We the Jews." Further investigations by the Russian historian Vladimir Burtsev revealed other sources for The Protocols, including a fantasy novel by Hermann Goedsche and, more darkly, the hand of the Russian secret police. Amazon.com has chosen to sell The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Obviously, they have the right to do so, although legitimate booksellers in America do not sell it. What is absolutely immoral and reprehensible, however, is that Amazon carried a positive review of the book, saying that it has not been proven to be a "hoax"--that is, that it can be read as a valid expose’ of a Jewish plot to destroy everyone else. The review originated with the book publisher, Book Tree, not with Amazon. However, Amazon displayed the review as the primary description of the book’s content. Alert readers informed the president of Amazon.com of this problem. However, the offending review remained on the Amazon.com web site, so an e-mail campaign began in an effort to boycott Amazon.com. Examples of the writers’ comments include the following: I would not shop in a store that sells neo-Nazi hate literature. I will never buy a book from Amazon.com again, and I urge you to do the same, and to let them know why. I think it is vitally important that Amazon realize that every sane person will not support pandering to neo-Nazis for profit. After numerous other complaints to Amazon.com, the publisher dropped the false review. On April 4, the publisher's comments were re-written to include the following: We at The Book Tree were unaware of the evidence that proves conclusively that The Protocols is a hoax, and had taken a neutral stand in the Introduction to a previous edition, saying people should read the book and decide for themselves. We extend our apologies for being unaware of this evidence, and now support those who claim it to be a hoax. In an effort to distance themselves from the controversy, Amazon.com ran the following on April 6: As some readers may be aware, a hoax e-mail has been circulating widely that falsely claims Amazon.com has favorably reviewed this book. This allegation is, of course, absolutely untrue. Nevertheless, this rumor has become so widespread on the Internet that it's already a recognized "urban legend," just like alligators living in the sewers. Amazon.com obviously does not endorse The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Amazon’s disclaimer is a lie. The e-mail was not a hoax. While the positive review of The Protocols originated with the publisher, not with Amazon.com, Amazon.com did run the review as their primary review of the book. Unfortunately, their removal of the offending review from their web site prevents others from knowing the truth--that Amazon.com at one time ran a false review and then removed it because of the threat of a boycott. At TruthNews, we still object to the book being sold. We consider it a partial victory for truth that the publisher is no longer claiming that there is no evidence that the book is a hoax. However, Amazon.com’s claim that they never ran a favorable review for the book reveals the extent to which this major bookseller is still willing to distort the truth. Amazon.com prides itself on making books available that other booksellers don’t carry. Their millions of titles include, for example, Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler’s diatribe describing his plans to destroy the Jewish people. As a bookseller, Amazon.com believes that providing open access to written speech, no matter how hateful or ugly, is one of the most important things they do. However, the danger with mass-marketing such hate literature, even for educational purposes, is that it provides easy access to hate-mongers, who can then claim that the forgery is the truth. For example, one of the reader reviews that was posted for The Protocols on Amazon’s web site states the following: This book provides startling insight into the origins and operation of our current political and financial systems. A concise hard hitting treatise. If the book is a forgery, how can it provide insight into the origins and operation of our current political and financial systems? Obviously, as the publisher Book Tree admits, "There are those few who are still adamant that The Protocols are genuine." If Amazon.com continues to market this book, there may soon be more than a few who believe that The Protocols are genuine.
© 2000 TruthNews. All Rights Reserved. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
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