Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S)
   
   
 
Special Information Bulletin
        January 2004
   
 
A new Arabic edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was issued in Egypt in July 2002, by the same company that publishes the weekly establishment newspaper, Akhbar al-Youm, one of the five large publishing houses still under Egyptian government control
   
 

Front Cover Illustration: The Conspiracy –
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
   
 
The front cover illustration is meant to depict the “Jewish world government” scheming to take over the world while looking for inspiration in Jewish religious books. In the foreground are two Jewish symbols, the seven-branched candelabrum and the Magen David (Star of David). According to al-Wahid, the Zionist movement is implementing the ideas expressed in The Protocols . He uses The Protocols as a weapon in his arsenal of propaganda, clearly directed against both the Zionist movement and the State of Israel. In his abstract to the first chapter, which is entitled “The Zionist Peril,” he claims that “On August 14, 1951, the 300 most arrogant and pretentious Zionist leaders met in Jerusalem, representing 50 [secret] Jewish associations. They decided the time was ripe to put their secret sheme into action, namely, to enslave the entire world under the rule of a [Jewish] king, one of the descendents of [King] David”(p. 17).
   
   
 

Previous editions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion which appeared in Egypt

   
  The Protocols were first published in Egypt in 1951 with an introduction written by the late ‘Abbas Mahmoud al-‘Aqqad, one of Egypt's most well-known and best-respected authors and literary critics. In it he wrote that it was strange that it had taken Egypt such a long time to issue a complete edition of “that wonderful book,” because it was imperative that all Arabs be made aware of its contents. They were all, he claimed, victims of the Balfour Declaration [issued by Britain in 1917] and of the establishment of the State of Israel on the soil of British Mandatory Palestine [in 1948]. 1

1 Hadassah Ben-Ito, The Lie that Refuses to Die, 100 years of “ The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” (Hebrew), Dvir, Tel Aviv, 1988, p. 334. By a highly-respected, former Israeli court judge, Ben-Ito's book is the best research published (in Hebrew) on the subject to date.

   
  In 1976, Dar al-Turath , a Cairo publishing house, issued a new edition of The Protocols with an introduction by the translator, Mohammed Khalifa al-Tunesi , apparently based on a previous edition he had translated during the 1950s. According to available information, the new translation was widely distributed throughout the Arab world, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In all probability it was a copy of that edition of The Protocols which was recently exhibited at the manuscript museum section of the ambitious Library of Alexandria [a celebrated and costly government project whose building was finally completed in November, 2003.] It was placed on a shelf of religious works next to a copy of the Torah [the first five books of the Old Testament], and only removed after protests had been made in the Western media. Its removal led to fierce arguments in the Egyptian media, which included expressions of blatant anti-Semitism.
 
 


The Jewish peril, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion translated by Mohammed Khalifa al-Tunesi (1976). “ The Jewish peril is not a misfortune visited only upon our country, but upon all nations and countries of the world. We must be eternally vigilant to guard against its intrigues and to do our utmost to overcome it through our holy war [jihad].” [From the translator's introduction, p. 12]


 
In 1994, an edition of The Protocols was issued by Maktabat al-Iman , a publishing house located next to the well-known al-Azhar University in Egypt.
   
 


“To the reader: Guard well your copy of this book, because whenever it has been published the Jews have fought hard against it…lest the world discover their diabolical plots.” (From the notes to the Arabic translation of The Protocols , the 1994 edition, p. 6)

 
   
 

The July 2002 edition of The Protocols

 
Apparently the latest edition of The Protocols was issued in July 2002 by the cultural department of the publishers who bring out the weekly newspaper Akhbar al-Youm. The publishing house is semi-official and one of the 5 large houses still under government control and subject to strict government censorship. It issues books, newspapers and periodicals, including the daily newspaper Al-Akhbar, the weekly Akhbar al-Youm and the weekly Akhir Sa'ah.
 
The Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Akhbar is edited by Galal Dewidar , whose policies are militantly anti-Israeli. Akhbar al-Youm's editor and chairman of the board of directors of its publishing house is Ibrahim Ali Sa'da , who is also fiercely anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli. Sa'da is an experienced journalist who has served in many capacities in the Egyptian media. It should be noted that it was Akhbar al-Youm, the largest and most respected publishing house in Egypt, which issued The Protocols . The 2002 edition was sold at the International Book Fair held in Cairo in February 2003 at Akhbar al-Youm's pavilion, and was in great demand .
 
 

The title page




Ibrahim Ali Sa'da, editor of the weekly Akhbar al-Youm and chairman of the board
directors of the Akhbar al-Youm publishing house
 
Marketing : The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , like other Akhbar al-Youm Book of the Month selections , is marketed throughout the Arab and Muslim world (including the PA-administered territories, via the Gaza Strip ). It is sold to Western countries as well, including Australia, Austria, Britain , Canada, Denmark, France , Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States , where it is marketed principally in New York, Washington and Los Angeles . It is therefore safe to assume that the 1994 edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion which was published in Egypt was distributed to the Arab and Muslim communities of the aforementioned countries.
 
  The following illustration shows the list of countries in which Akhbar al-Youm Book of the Month selections are marketed (and their prices in the various countries). It appears on the second page of the 2002 Egyptian edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion .

 
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is not the only example of anti-Semitic hate literature issued by the large, well-respected Akhbar al-Youm Publishing House. As noted, other hard-covered anti-Semitic volumes, including one called Jewish Crimes against the Monotheistic Religions , could be purchased at their pavilion during the February 2003 International Book Fair held in Cairo.
 
Akhbar alYoum, Cultural Department
  Jewish Crimes against the Monotheistic Religions. Author: Hanafi al-Mahlawi ; publisher: Akhbar al-Youm, Cultural Department; place and date of publication, Cairo, 2002 . The top hat (symbol of diplomats of ambassadorial rank) is meant to reflect Jewish “control” over world governments, as indicated by the large Magen David (Star of David) in the background and the small one on the hat itself. For excerpts from the introduction to the book, see the Appendix.
 
 
General outline of The Conspiracy -- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

From the back cover blurb, written by the editor-in-chief, Nabil Abaza :
 
 

“Hitler was not the first world leader who tried to defend himself against the Jewish conspiracy. According to history books, European rulers who participated in the Crusades against Palestine [sic] and the East slaughtered and imprisoned Jews in their countries before they set out because they were afraid of Jewish intrigues.”

 
  “The events that have occurred and the way they occurred from the [First Zionist] Congress in Basel to this day prove that the Jews are trying to bring to bear the schemes first spun at the aforementioned Congress in 1897. They are aided by great powers such as Russia, Britain and of course the United States… The United States [naturally became] Israel's firmest ally after the Jews took over its economy and news media.”
 
The book is divided into three parts :
  The preface written by Hussein ‘Abd al-Wahid
  Four introductory chapters written by al-Wahid and entitled: The Jewish Peril; The Talmud [the collection of Jewish law and tradition] and the Jewish Personality; Anti-Semitism, the Jews' Greatest Fraud; Will the World Awake [from its Slumber] before the Great Catastrophe [Occurs]?
  The full text of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion .
     
The Author's Preface
The preface (pp. 5-15) purports to be a history of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . It is in no way objective and clearly reflects the militant anti-Semitism of its author , who tries to convince his readers that The Protocols are not a fabrication. Following are excerpts from his preface:
 
  “ The Protocols expound some of the Jews' religious and historical ideas. Five years after the [First Zionist] Congress was convened in Basel, Switzerland, attended by the best Jewish minds and led by Theodore Herzl, the Russian scientist [sic] Sergei Nilus published the secret decisions ratified by the Congress. They were written [in a document] entitled The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ” (p. 5).
 
  “Sergei Nilus… was appalled by [the “document's”] decisions and dangerous plots … which led him to print and distribute it in 1902 so that the public might be made aware [of its contents]… In response, the heads of the Jewish community tried to confiscate every copy [which had been distributed] on the market by doubling the price paid [for each copy]. However, one copy reached the British Museum on August 16, 1906” (pp. 5-6).
 
  “The Jews did not remain idle while their secrets were being exposed and made public. Not only did they buy every copy [of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ] they could find, but they hunted down all the Europeans who had translated the book and bombed the editorial offices of the newspapers which had dared to print its contents. ”
 
  “There are 24 Protocols. The original version of 110 pages described the Jews' infernal plot to take over the modern world by exploiting [their] money to sow the seeds of discord among the various nations and races; to turn world industry, commerce and the communications media into Jewish monopolies; to incite anarchy, civil and international war; to spread abominations and permissiveness and to show the naked female body” (p. 7).
 
 

“In 1920 a new edition of The Protocols was published in Polish . The following year, Palestinian and Syrian Arabs used The Protocols to arouse nationalistic-fed hatred against the Jewish settlers in British-controlled Mandatory Palestine [i.e., Eretz Israel]…In addition, many editions of The Protocols were also published in Arabic” (p. 10).

 
  “ The Protocols of the Elders of Zion contributed to the spread of anti-Semitism and its supporters placed the responsibility for Nazi Germany's slaughter of the Jews squarely on the shoulders of the Jews themselves . The Jewish conspiracy [to take over the world] became apparent to Hitler when he made the connection between it and Germany's financial woes in the nineteen twenties…” (p. 10). “Germany took its first anti-Semitic action in April 1933 by boycotting all Jewish-owned stores for a [whole] day. The boycott was a show of self defense against ‘the conspiracy of the Basel Congress ,' which was another way of describing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ” (p. 12).
 
  “ The Protocols of the Elders of Zion has served as a powerful source of anti-Semitic propaganda for Arabs and Muslims alike . Between 1965-1967 approximately 50 books were published in Arabic which were either based on the ideas found in The Protocols or which quoted [passages] from them to support the authors' viewpoints. In 1980, Jordan's representative to the UN mentioned The Protocols as [if he were referring to] an authentic document. In October 1987, the Iranian embassy in Brazil distributed copies of The Protocols , describing the book as ‘part of world history.' During the nineteen eighties, [extremist] Islamic groups (al-Jama'at al-Islamiyyah) distributed copies of The Protocols everywhere [sic]” (pp. 12-13).
 
  “It is [entirely] possible that the Zionists and the Jews themselves are responsible for The Protocols ' authenticity , especially in view of the crimes Israel has committed against the Palestinian people and the Arabs, and the barbaric acts of slaughter the Jewish leaders continue to commit … The Protocols are shown to be authentic by the Jewish control – about which there can be no doubt – of the greatest power in the world today, the United States . The United States has become nothing more than a tool in the hands of the Jews, and is exploited to achieve Zionist ambitions not only in Palestine and the Arab world, but to an even greater extent throughout the entire world. What is strange is that everything occurs exactly as was laid out in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , which the Jews claim is a total fabrication, whereas every development and event, carried out in full view, proves the veracity [sic] of The Protocols ” (pp. 4-15).
 
 
Four Introductory Chapters
 
Chapter One: The Zionist Peril
The author's abstract of the first chapter : “On August 14, 1951, the 300 most arrogant and pretentious Zionist leaders met in Jerusalem, representing 50 [secret] Jewish associations. They decided the time was ripe to put their secret plot into action, namely, to enslave the entire world under the rule of a [Jewish] king, one of the descendents of [King] David”(p. 17). It should be noted that each of the introductory chapters is illustrated with the classic anti-Semitic symbol of a snake combined with well-known Jewish/Israeli motifs: the Star of David (Magen David), the seven-branched candelabrum and the internationally famous picture of the Israeli soldier (Yitzhak Yifat, today a physician) photographed at the Wailing Wall in 1967 (upper left). The addition of his picture illustrates the combination of motifs representing the Jewish people and the State of Israel, with images of anti-Semitism .
 

Chapter Two: The Talmud and the Jewish Personality

The author's abstract of the second chapter : “ Talmud is a Hebrew word meaning ‘learning by heart.' It is a book about the Jewish religion with all its implications, including ideas and statements of hatred against the world and the rest of humanity” (p. 27).

 
Chapter Three: Anti-Semitism, the Jews' Greatest Fraud
The author's abstract of the third chapter : “Among world Zionism's most dangerous weapons,which it uses to terrify and pillage the world [are] the accusation [against non-Jews] of anti-Semitism and the fairy tale about the [universal] war against the Jews, or the Holocaust…” (p. 14).
 
Chapter Four: Will the World Awake [from its Slumber] before the Great Catastrophe [Occurs]?
The author's abstract of the fourth chapter : “Why are those who deny the Holocaust arrested and tried, their reputations ruined and their books banned, while those who deny the crimes of Israel and the United States are respected and protected, awarded medals and prizes?!” (p. 59).
 
The full text of The Protocols of the Elders of Zi
Pages 101-205 present the full text of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . According to its preface, “[The Jews] aspire to achieve the best results by taking over the governments of the non-Jews rather than by using meaningless, theoretical arguments. Therefore, every individual [among them] whose ambition it is to hold the reins of government, aspires to be a [global] dictator .” It should be noted that as with the 4 introductory chapters, the first page of each of the 24 Protocols also bears the same combination of anti-Semitic images and well-known Jewish/Israeli symbols mentioned above.
 
Appendix
 
Another anti-Semitic book published by Akhbar al-Youm:
Jewish Crimes against the Monotheistic Religions
 
Other hard-covered anti-Semitic volumes, including one called Jewish Crimes against the Monotheistic Religions , could be purchased at the Akhbar al-Youm pavilion during the February 2003 International Book Fair held in Cairo. The book accuses the Jews of trying to undermine the three monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism [sic].
 
Akhbar alYoum, Cultural Department
  Jewish Crimes against the Monotheistic Religions . Author: Hanafi al-Mahlawi ; publisher: Akhbar al-Youm, Cultural Department; place and date of publication, Cairo, 2002 .
 
 
After the title page there is a biased partial quotation from the Qur'an which has been widely used in various publication issued by extremist Islamic groups . It reads: “ Strongest among men in hostility to the [Muslim] believers wilt thou find the Jews [ and pagans ; the last two words were most probably deliberately omitted from the quotation] … ” [Surah 5 (al-Ma'idah), Verse 82].
 
   
The following are quotations from the preface :
  “There are dozens of books which have been published, in both Arabic and Western languages, which describe in great detail the history of the Jews, or of the Israelites or of Zionism. Note, however, that most, if not all of them, ignore or deliberately omit any mention of the terrible crimes the Jews committed, either against themselves [their own people] or against their prophets or against other nations and peoples ” (p. 5).
 
  “[Unfortunately, Arab philosophers and historians]… failed to mention … Jewish crimes in the past , especially those perpetrated during the time [of those who proclaimed] the monotheistic religions. Those are, in our opinion, the worst and most serious [crimes], because their filthy hands reached out using forgery and distortion to wage war on the religion of Allah [Islam] and its monotheistic message” (p. 6).
 
 

We will now explain the nature of the crimes the Jews have committed, the means used to commit them, their severity and why they were committed … all of them, to the very last, directed at waging war on the three monotheistic religions ” (pp. 6-7).

 
  The preface ends (p. 7) with a preview of the books' four chapters. The first chapter discusses the “crimes” of the Jews and their revolt against Allah; the second deals with “how those [Jewish] criminals used murder, torture and humiliation to fight the prophets of Allah, and first among them…the esteemed prophet Moses, may peace be upon him!” The third and fourth chapters deal with the “boldness” of the Jews “who dared to distort the holy writings, whether it was a question of the New Testament or the Torah [the first five books of the Old Testament] or some of the most important hadiths [the accredited sayings] of the prophet [Mohammed], while clarifying the attempts of some Jews of Medina [the second holiest Muslim city after Mecca]… to falsify and distort the holy Qur'an .” The book claims that those attempts are still being made and the preface ends with the following words: “ We will shed a bright light on the Jewish attempts to destroy the three monotheistic religious – Judaism [sic], Christianity and Islam .”
   
   
 
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