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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
European Academics Denounce Alexandria Library Defilement and Define Hate Literature Targeting Any One Faith Community in Europe as "an Assault on All Faiths"
Venice, 8 December 2003
Professors from 38 universities from across Europe welcomed UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura's condemnation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (statement attached).
A two-day experts seminar on "The Centennial of The Protocols: A Paradigm for Contemporary Hate Literature", co-organized by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's campus arm, ARARE, and Olokaustos, under the auspices of UNESCO:
- Protested the display of The Protocols as "a Jewish sacred text" at the ancient Alexandria Library, recently renovated by UNESCO, as "a defilement of its academic standing", and called for the Library to be "a centre for serious scholarly and inter-cultural dialogue".
- Resolved that "hate literature targeting any one faith community in Europe should be considered an assault on all faith communities. Exposure of the deceit in this literature and the factors common to all conspiracy theories is incumbent upon all academics, religious leaders and international organizations."
- Considered measures for the deconstruction and refutation of all conspiracy theories, including defamation suits, exposure of the bad faith of instigators, embarrassment of disseminators as accomplices, disclosing vested interests and the defusion of myths through ridicule and humour.
- Recommended identifying and responding directly to specific consumer groups of hate literature by
+ encouraging research into the specificities, commonalities and underlying environments for the dissemination of hate literature
+ launching local countermeasures interactively between law professors, jurists and religious leaders
+ including student activists in academic dialogue on racism, antisemitism and hate literature
+ monitoring and engaging editors and journalists on stereotyping and sub-textual slippage into the language of conspiracy theories in the media and Internet websites
+ stripping campus-based Holocaust deniers and conspiracy theorists of academic respectability
+ exposing the absurdity of hate imagery to school children by editing a manual for teachers on conspiracy rebuttal
+ engaging representatives of each religious and ethnic group to identify, acknowledge and expose the dangers of hate literature within its own community.
ARARE Academic Response to Antisemitism and Racism in Europe) is the university arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. Established in 1994, it counts a membership of some 500 professors and rectors in over 30 European countries.
Olokaustos is a historical studies centre established in 2001 and based in Venice.
For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels (Simon Wiesenthal Centre) at +33 6 09 77 01 58 and/or Giovanni De Martis (Olokaustos) at +39.348.272.3490.