Publishers from Arab countries came to the Frankfurt Book Fair as the guests of honor, seeking understanding and tolerance as well as a greater appreciation of Arab culture and literature. But several publishers, as well as the book fair itself, have attracted criticism and charges of anti-Semitism for their display of at least a dozen books with strong anti-Zionist themes.
Leaders of the official Arab delegation to the fair said on Friday that they were not promoting anti-Jewish views, adding that while some books did contain anti-Zionist arguments, they were not racist. And book fair officials said that while they regretted that a small percentage of the 25,000 books on display from Arab publishers and writers were highly critical of Israel, the books did not appear to violate German laws against the incitement of hatred or crime.
After being notified of complaints about the books from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the international Jewish rights organization, the Frankfurt prosecutor's office said on Friday that it did not have sufficient information to open a formal investigation, in part because the texts of the books were in Arabic and had not yet been translated.
The argument over the Arab books escalates a controversy that has existed almost since the book fair announced two years ago that it was seeking to have "the Arab World" serve as guests of honor at the fair, the industry's most important market for the sale and purchase of international publishing rights.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/09/books/09fair.html?oref=login..............................................................