A Report by Shimon Samuels and Alex Uberti
Paris, 29 October 2025
For more than two decades, we have been monitoring several Arab book fairs across the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, as well as the biggest World book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany (FBM – Frankfurter BuchMesse), to identify texts and publishers that peddle hate, especially against the Jews. At the FBM, in compliance with German law and following our alerts, those texts that got through would be checked and confiscated by the local Hessen Police.
This year, we have found several books within the FBM that are to be considered problematic, mostly related to the conflict triggered by the 7 October 2023 terror attack against Israel. Since the responsibilities of Hamas and Palestinian terrorism have been promptly reversed against Israel and the Jews, antisemitism worldwide has skyrocketed, on campus as in the media... It is no surprise that the publishing industry is affected.
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 others relaying genocidal narratives, but also books denying the Holocaust and promoting conspiracy theories, or others relaying defamatory antisemitic prejudices. Since last year, also books published in the United States and the West have begun drawing our concern.
Detailed reports on books found at Arab Book Fairs and at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the past are available on demand at: csweurope@mail.com
This year, an Egyptian publisher, Kotopia (part of the “Frankfurt Global Network” of small publishers), presented books glorifying terrorists, the “Holy War” against Israel, and antisemitism, with titles such as:
A) “War of Liberation”, by Ayman K. Howera (co-founder of Kotopia). This book considers war as the only means for Palestinian statehood, and incites the destruction of Israel, presented as “a cancerous entity”.
B) “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.
C) “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.
Unsurprisingly, a handful of Western publishers showcased unabashedly biased narratives, exploiting the horrors of the war in Gaza to forward a political agenda. Some ride the polarizing, banalizing and radicalizing phenomenon of “Wokism”, others are the expression of a methodical infiltration of ideologized Islamist militants (often connected to the Muslim Brotherhood) in all spheres of our societies, including literature and publishing.
This year’s examples are:
An American publisher, Interlink – who’s owner claims to be a Palestinian refugee, although he has been living and working in the USA for several decades – shows an obsession for Zionism, portrayed through the lens of “apartheid”, “colonization" and “genocide”, collaborates with several radical anti-Israel organizations – such as Sumud, BDS, CodePink, etc. – and often avails itself of anti-Zionist Jewish authors.
Another US-based publisher, Seven Stories, carries several problematic books which seem to use victim testimonies to demonize and delegitimize Israel, condemning Jewish existential aspirations, while Palestinian Arab responsibilities are gingerly ignored.
Colombian-based Editorial Maktaba publishes a book that is one-sided and factually ill-informed: in its timeline, the 7 October massacre is not even mentioned, while Israel was supposedly perpetrating a “genocide” even before 2023... and the Jews seem to have no historical connection to the Holy Land whatsoever.
Last but not least, a book by London publisher Saqi was presented by its editors, based in Jerusalem and in London respectively (who are supported by UNRWA’s Director of Communications and a Palestinian journalist from Gaza). The personal testimonies of inhabitants and victims are delivered as if Gaza had always been “a place of humanity and creativity”, where Hamas never existed, and child indoctrination never occurred. The editors on stage presented a “genocide by the Zionists” that seems to be ongoing relentlessly since 1948.
Ask for a full report on these books at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025, contact: csweurope@mail.com
As the FBM opened to the general public, we experienced the worst surprise, on the square facing the Fair’s main entrance. Here, pro-Palestinian collectives staged a “boycott of the Frankfurt Book Fair” with tents dedicated to “cultural events”, propaganda materials, merchandising, fundraising, and their own “Palestinian liberatory Bookfair”, including a collection of the above-mentioned texts, but also books whitewashing terrorist activities, glorifying Palestinian national-socialism, promoting BDS campaigns and the Sumud flotilla, showcasing anti-Zionist historians and anti-colonial ideologists...
Among the books on display, also 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.
A report on this parallel pro-Palestinian event is available by contacting: csweurope@mail.com
The “2025 Hate Prize” goes to Egyptian publisher Kotopia, which continues in the wake of many previous publishers glorifying violence against Israel and the Jews. Nevertheless, “2025 Runners-up” are those publishers in the West who de facto justify antisemitic hate, reverse responsibilities and condone terrorist actions. A new “2025 Outsider” prize goes to the “Palestinian Book Fair”, bent on antagonizing the spirit of the FBM by showing texts that go from cognitive bias to ideological incitement.
___________________________________
Dr Shimon Samuels is former Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre
Alex Uberti is Consultant and Project Manager for CSW-Europe
* * *
For further information, contact csw-europe@gmail.com