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| Europe |
| Paris court weighs Arab 'hate' TV |
| 2004-08-20 |
| A top French court is due to decide on Friday whether a Lebanese-based Arabic channel should be banned in France. The country's broadcast watchdog body wants al-Manar TV removed from satellite transmissions for allegedly airing anti-Semitic views. The move follows a complaint by French Jewish groups over a programme entitled the Criminal History of Zionism, which they say incited hatred. The proposed ban has drawn protests from Al-Manar and Lebanon's government. The Higher Broadcasting Council (CSA) is seeking approval from the Council of State - France highest administrative court - to have al-Manar temporarily suspended. The CSA says the Criminal History of Zionism - broadcast in late 2003 - quoted extensively from the discredited 1997 publication the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, alluding to "Jewish ritual killings". The channel denies the charge of anti-Semitism, saying the programme "depicted reality" and did not incite hatred. Al-Manar Foreign Editor Ibrahim Mousawi told BBC News Online that the proposed ban result from "political pressure by the Jewish lobby". He added that the station wanted to "solve the problem through negotiation". The Beirut government has also criticised the CSA's decision. Lebanese media quoted a letter from the foreign ministry to the French government arguing that the broadcast was a criticism of "the Zionist ideology and practices at the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict", not an attack on Jews. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #4 Ah the famous Protocols... still ranking Number One on Amazon Arabia... |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2004-08-20 4:14:09 PM |
| #3 The CSA says the Criminal History of Zionism - broadcast in late 2003 - quoted extensively from the discredited 1997 publication the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, alluding to "Jewish ritual killings". Any organization that disseminates part or parcel of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is automatically guilty of fraud, hate speech and anti-Semitism. The channel denies the charge of anti-Semitism, saying the programme "depicted reality" and did not incite hatred. Add "delusional behavior" to list as well. I hope France has the good sense to permanently revoke al-Manar TV's license to broadcast. They are essentially promoting a terrorist agenda and need to be shut down immediately. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-08-20 3:42:20 PM |
| #2 [the broadcast by the channel was] . . .alluding to "Jewish ritual killings" The channel denies the charge of anti-Semitism, saying the programme "depicted reality" so discussing "Jewish ritual killings" isn't anti-Semitism, it's simply a matter of "fact" according to the channel. What scum. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2004-08-20 9:12:43 AM |
| #1 the discredited 1997 publication the Protocols of the Elders of Zion The year in that phrase should be 1897. The following is a history of the forgery, from The Skeptic's Dictionary. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forgery made in Russia for the Okhrana (secret police), which blames the Jews for the country's ills. It was first privately printed in 1897 and was made public in 1905. It is copied from a nineteenth century novel by Hermann Goedsche (Biarritz, 1868) and claims that a secret Jewish cabal is plotting to take over the world. The basic story was composed by Goedsche, a German novelist and anti-Semite who used the pseudonym of Sir John Retcliffe. Goedsche stole the main story from another writer, Maurice Joly, whose Dialogues in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu (1864) involved a Hellish plot aimed at opposing Napoleon III. Goedsche's original contribution consists mainly of introducing Jews to do the plotting to take over the world. The Russians used big chunks of a Russian translation of Goedsche's novel, published it separately as the Protocols, and claimed they were authentic. Their purpose was political: to strengthen the czar Nicholas II's position by exposing his opponents as allies with those who were part of a massive conspiracy to take over the world. Thus, the Protocols are a forgery of a plagiarized fiction. The Protocols were exposed as a forgery by Lucien Wolf in The Jewish Bogey and the Forged Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (London: Press Committee of the Jewish Board of Deputies, 1920). In 1921, Philip Graves, a correspondent for the London Times, publicized the forgery. Herman Bernstein in The Truth About "The Protocols of Zion": A Complete Exposure (1935) also tried and failed to convince the world of the forgery. |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-08-20 8:48:26 AM |