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The Protocols of the (Learned) Elders of Zion, also The Protocols of the Sages of Zion or The Protocols of Zion (Template:Lang-ru), is an anti-semitic text purporting to describe a plan to achieve global domination by the Jewish people. Following its first public publication in 1903 in the Russian Empire, numerous independent investigations have repeatedly proved the writing to be a hoax; notably, a series of articles printed in The Times of London in 1921 revealed that much of the material was directly plagiarized from earlier works of political satire unrelated to Jews. Nevertheless, some people continue to view it as factual, especially in parts of the world where anti-Semitism, anti-Judaism, or anti-Zionism are widespread. It is frequently quoted and reprinted by anti-Semites, and is sometimes used as evidence of Jewish conspiracy, especially in the Middle East.

The Protocols are widely considered the beginning of contemporary conspiracy theory literature, and take the form of an instruction manual to a new member of the "Elders", describing how they will run the world through control of the media and finance and replace the traditional social order with one based on mass manipulation. The work was popularized by those opposed to the Russian revolutionary movement, and was disseminated further after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but achieved worldwide popularity after the 1917 Bolshevik October Revolution, when the idea that Bolshevism was a Jewish conspiracy for world domination sparked far-ranging interest in the Protocols. It was widely circulated in the West in the 1920s and 1930s, and while continued usage of the Protocols as a propaganda tool substantially diminished with the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, it still has currency in the arsenal of contemporary anti-Semitism.

Origins and content

The origin of much of the text of the Protocols is an 1864 pamphlet entitled Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu (Dialogues in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu), written by the French satirist Maurice Joly. Joly's work attacks the political ambitions of Napoleon III using the device of diabolical plotters in Hell as stand-ins for Napoleon's views. Joly himself appears to have plagiarized a good amount of the material from a popular novel by Eugène Sue, The Mysteries of the People, in which the plotters were Jesuits. Jews do not appear in either work. Since it was illegal to criticize the monarchy, Joly had the pamphlet printed in Belgium, then tried to smuggle it back into France. The police confiscated as many copies as they could, and it was banned. After it was traced to Joly, he was tried on April 25, 1865, and sentenced to fifteen months in prison.

Hermann Goedsche, a German anti-Semite and spy for the Prussian secret police who had been removed from his job as a postal clerk after forging evidence in the prosecution of political reformer Benedict Waldeck in 1849, included Joly's Dialogues in his 1868 book Biarritz, written under pseudonym Sir John Retcliffe. In the chapter "The Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel", he invented a secret rabbinical cabal which meets in the cemetery at midnight every hundred years to plan the agenda for the "Jewish Conspiracy". His depiction borrowed heavily from the scene in Alexandre Dumas's Joseph Balsamo where Cagliostro and company plot the affair of the diamond necklace, and he borrowed the outcome of the meeting from Joly.

Structure and themes

The twenty-four Protocols are posited as instructions to a new Elder, outlining how the group will control the world. The Elders want to trick all "gentile nations", whom they call "goyim", into doing their will. Their preferred methods are the propagation of radically liberal ideas, subversion of traditional morality, promotion of freedom of the press, questioning traditional authority, and sowing doubt about Christian and patriotic values. Control of the media and finance will replace the traditional sources of social order with one based on mass manipulation. In these respects the Protocols draw on long-standing conservative and Christian criticisms of modernity, radicalism and capitalism, but present them as part of an orchestrated plot, rather than as a product of impersonal historical processes.

The text assumes that the reader already believes that the Freemasons are a secret society with a hidden political agenda, and the Protocols purport to demonstrate that this hidden agenda is itself controlled or guided by the 'Elders,' a sort of conspiracy theory within a conspiracy theory. In the Protocols, Freemasons and "liberal thinkers" are shown to be mere tools through whom the Elders will eventually install a Jewish theocracy.

The Protocols describe a forthcoming "kingdom" and go into great lengths about how it will be run. Yet even in this kingdom the Elders will avoid direct political control, preferring to assert themselves via usury and manipulation of money. Even the "King of the Jews" himself will be nothing more than a figurehead.

Excerpts

The Protocols 1-19 closely follow the order of the Dialogues in Hell... 1-17, with a few exceptions. In some places, plagiarism is incontrovertible:

Another example is the reference to the Hindu deity, Vishnu, which appears exactly twice in both the Dialogues in Hell... and the Protocols:

Textual references to the "King of the Jews", the semi-messianic idea that carries strong connotations of Jesus, further suggest the author was not well-versed in Jewish culture, as this term has been avoided in the Judaic tradition since the schism between Judaism and Christianity.

Once Graves' Times article showed the extent of the similarity between the two texts, it became clear that the Protocols were propaganda and not an authentic record of actual events.

Conspiracy references

The idea that the Freemasons formed part of an anti-Christian conspiracy, either separate from or in association with Jews, long predated the spreading of The Protocols. In the late 18th-early 19th centuries, Freemasonry was popular (as were many fraternal organizations), and its most significant opponent, the Roman Catholic Church, opposed its open support for freedom of religion and enlightenment ideals.

After some interaction with masons, a Scottish natural philosopher John Robison became an enthusiastic conspiracy theorist and expanded on his impressions in his 1797 pamphlet Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the secret meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati and Reading Societies. He did not take into account that French masons were members of several mutually hostile factions and that many of them were executed by their rivals. Robison's work does not mention Jews.

Abbé Barruél had some contact with Robison, but extended the notion to include Jews. He had accused the Jews of founding the Bavarian Illuminati, a movement of freethinkers that were the most radical offshoot of The Enlightenment, and who had ties to the Masons.

The Protocols are widely considered influential in the development of other conspiracy theories, and reappear repeatedly in contemporary conspiracy literature, such as Jim Marrs' Rule by Secrecy. Some recent editions proclaim that the "Jews" depicted in the Protocols are a cover identity for other conspirators such as the Illuminati, Freemasons, the Priory of Sion, or even, in the opinion of David Icke, "extra-dimensional entities". Other minor groups that believe in their authenticity have claimed that the book does not depict the way that all Jews think and act but only those belonging to an alleged secret elite of Zionists.

Historical publications, usage, and investigations

Emergence in Russia

A Russian translation of Joly's Dialogues in Hell appeared in 1872. After the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881, an excerpt from the chapter "In the Jewish Cemetery in Prague," containing the alleged rabbinical plot against European civilization, began circulating in Russia as a pamphlet. The tsarist secret police found the work useful in their effort to discredit liberal reformers and revolutionaries who were rapidly gaining popular support, especially among oppressed minorities such as Russian Jews.

Matvei Golovinski worked together with Charles Joly (son of Maurice Joly) at Le Figaro in Paris and wrote articles at the direction of Pyotr Rachkovsky, Chief of the Russian secret service. During the Dreyfus affair in France, when polarization of European attitudes towards the Jews was at a maximum, the text was edited into its final form and began private circulation as The Protocols in 1897.

On November 21 1999, The Washington Times reported:

Research by a leading Russian historian, Mikhail Lepekhine, in recently opened archives has found the forgery to be the work of Mathieu Golovinski, opportunistic scion of an aristocratic but rebellious family that drifted into a life of espionage and propaganda work. After working for the czarist secret service, he later changed sides and joined the Bolsheviks. Mr. Lepekhine’s findings, published in the French magazine L'Express, would appear to clear up the last remaining mystery surrounding the Protocols.

First printing and Nilus edition

The Protocols were first published abridged in series from August 28 to September 7 (O.S.), 1903 in the St. Petersburg daily newspaper Знамя (Znamya - "The Banner") by Pavel Krushevan, who had initiated the Kishinev pogrom four months earlier.

The Protocols enjoyed another wave of popularity in Russia after 1905, when the progressive political elements in Russia succeeded in creating a constitution and a parliament, the Duma. The reactionary "Union of the Russian People", known as the Black Hundreds, together with the Okhranka, the Tsarist secret police, blamed this liberalization on the "International Jewish conspiracy," and began a program of disseminating the Protocols as a propaganda support for the wave of pogroms that swept Russia in 1903–1906 and a tool to deflect attention from social activism.

For Tsar Nicholas II, who was fearful of modernization and protective of his monarchy, it would have been convenient to present the growing revolutionary movement as part of a powerful world conspiracy and blame the Jews for Russia's problems.

In 1905, self-proclaimed mystic priest Sergei Nilus gained fame by publishing the full text of the Protocols in the appendix of the third edition of his book The Great in the Small: The Coming of the Anti-Christ and the Rule of Satan on Earth. He claimed it was the work of the First Zionist Congress, held eight years earlier in Basel, Switzerland.

When it was pointed out that the First Zionist Congress had been open to the public and attended by many non-Jews, he changed his story, saying the Protocols were the work of the 1902–1903 meetings of the "Elders". This could not have been true, as he had claimed to have received his copy before then:

In 1901, I succeeded through an acquaintance of mine (the late Court Marshal Alexei Nikolayevich Sukotin of Chernigov) in getting a manuscript that exposed with unusual perfection and clarity the course and development of the secret Jewish Freemasonic conspiracy, which would bring this wicked world to its inevitable end. The person who gave me this manuscript guaranteed it to be a faithful translation of the original documents that were stolen by a woman from one of the highest and most influential leaders of the Freemasons at a secret meeting somewhere in France—the beloved nest of Freemasonic conspiracy.

Nilus's changed story makes the Protocols' origin appear even more dubious.

He also had personal motivations for publishing them. At the time he was trying to become the royal couple's confessor and brought his book to the Tsar's attention with the help of the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna. This was part of a faction fight against Papus and Nizier Anthelme Philippe at the Tsarist court. (Indeed, Papus was accused in 1920 of having forged the Protocols to discredit Philippe.)

Nicholas II's notes handwritten in the margins are the evidence of his first reaction:

"What precise execution of their programme!",

"Our 1905 was clearly orchestrated by the Zion Elders!",

"The Jews' guiding and destroying hand is visible everywhere".

Stolypin's fraud investigation, 1905

A subsequent secret investigation ordered by the newly appointed chairman of the Council of Ministers Pyotr Stolypin soon determined that the Protocols were authored by operatives of the Okhranka in Paris. The details were not made public to avoid compromising the chief of the secret service Pyotr Rachkovsky and his agents, including Golovinski. When Nicholas II learned of the results of this investigation, he requested: "The Protocols should be confiscated, a good cause cannot be defended by dirty means". Despite the order, or because of the "good cause", numerous reprints proliferated.

Bolshevism and spread of the Protocols, 1920s

After the Bolshevik Revolution, factions connected to the White movement used the Protocols to perpetrate hatred and violence against the Jews. The idea that the Bolshevik movement was a Jewish conspiracy for world domination sparked worldwide interest in the Protocols.

The author of the most widespread English translation of the Protocols was a British correspondent for The Morning Post, Victor E. Marsden, who was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Upon his release and return to England he began translating Nilus's version, adding an introduction that concluded with a comment on Chaim Weizmann's October 6, 1920 remark at a banquet: "A beneficent protection which God has instituted in the life of the Jew is that He has dispersed him all over the world." Marsden asserted,

"It proves that the Learned Elders exist. It proves that Dr. Weizmann knows all about them. It proves that the desire for a "National Home" in Palestine is only camouflage and an infinitesimal part of the Jew's real object. It proves that the Jews of the world have no intention of settling in Palestine or any separate country, and that their annual prayer that they may all meet "Next Year in Jerusalem" is merely a piece of their characteristic make-believe. It also demonstrates that the Jews are now a world menace, and that the Aryan races will have to domicile them permanently out of Europe."

In a single year, five editions sold out in England. That same year in the United States, Henry Ford sponsored the printing of 500,000 copies, and until 1927 published a series of anti-Semitic articles in The Dearborn Independent, a newspaper he controlled. In 1921 Ford cited it as evidence of a Jewish threat: "The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on. They are sixteen years old, and they have fitted the world situation up to this time." In 1927, however, Ford retracted his publication and apologized, claiming his assistants duped him.

The first German translation was by Ludwig Müller von Hausen in 1920. It was followed in 1923 by Alfred Rosenberg's edition, Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion und die judische Weltpolitik.

The Times exposes a forgery, 1921

In 1920, the history of the concepts found in the Protocols was traced back to the works of Goedsche and Joly by Lucien Wolf, published in London in August 1921 and similarly exposed in the series of articles in The Times by its Constantinople reporter, Philip Graves, who took his information from Wolf's work.

In the first article of Graves' series, entitled "A Literary Forgery", the editors of The Times wrote, "our Constantinople Correspondent presents for the first time conclusive proof that the document is in the main a clumsy plagiarism. He has forwarded us a copy of the French book from which the plagiarism is made."

In the same year, an entire book documenting the hoax was published in the United States by Herman Bernstein. Despite this widespread and extensive debunking, the Protocols continued to be regarded as important factual evidence by anti-Semites.

The Berne Trial, 1934-1935

In 1934, Swiss Nazi Dr. A. Zander published a series of articles accepting the Protocols as fact. He was sued in what has come to be known as the Berne Trial. The trial began in the Cantonal Court of Berne on October 29, 1934, the plaintiffs were Dr. J. Dreyfus-Brodsky, Dr. Marcus Cohen and Dr. Marcus Ehrenpreis. On May 19, 1935 the court, after full investigation, declared the Protocols to be forgeries, plagiarisms, and obscene literature. Judge Walter Meyer, a Christian who had not heard of the Protocols earlier, said in conclusion:

"I hope, the time will come when nobody will be able to understand how in 1935 nearly a dozen sane and responsible men were able for two weeks to mock the intellect of the Bern court discussing the authenticity of the so-called Protocols, the very Protocols that, harmful as they have been and will be, are nothing but laughable nonsense".

A Russian emigre, anti-Bolshevik and anti-Fascist Vladimir Burtsev, who exposed numerous Okhranka agents provocateurs in the early 1900s, served as a witness at the Berne Trial. In 1938 in Paris he published a book, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Proved Forgery, based on his testimony.

In an August 1934 case in Grahamstown, South Africa, the court imposed fines totalling £1,775 (about $4,500) on three men for disseminating a version of the Protocols.

Used by the Nazis, 1930s-1940s

The Protocols were published in Italy in 1937, by Julius Evola, who also wrote the introduction.

The Protocols also became a part of the Nazi propaganda effort to justify persecution of the Jews. It was made required reading for German students. In The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry 1933-1945, Nora Levin states that "Hitler used the Protocols as a manual in his war to exterminate the Jews":

Despite conclusive proof that the Protocols were a gross forgery, they had sensational popularity and large sales in the 1920's and 1930's. They were translated into every language of Europe and sold widely in Arab lands, the United States, and England. But it was in Germany after World War I that they had their greatest success. There they were used to explain all of the disasters that had befallen the country: the defeat in the war, the hunger, the destructive inflation.

Hitler refers to the Protocols in Mein Kampf:

... To what extent the whole existence of this people is based on a continuous lie is shown incomparably by the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, so infinitely hated by the Jews. They are based on a forgery, the Frankfurter Zeitung moans and screams once every week: the best proof that they are authentic. the important thing is that with positively terrifying certainty they reveal the nature and activity of the Jewish people and expose their inner contexts as well as their ultimate final aims.

Contemporary usage and popularity

While there is continued popularity of The Protocols in nations from South America to Asia, since the defeat of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy in the Second World War governments or political leaders have generally avoided claims that The Protocols represent factual evidence of a real Jewish conspiracy — with one major exception: a large number of Arab and Muslim regimes and leaders in the Middle East.

Past endorsements of The Protocols from Presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat of Egypt, one of the President Arifs of Iraq, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and Colonel Moammar Qaddafi of Libya, among other political and intellectual leaders of the Arab world, are echoed by 21st century endorsements from the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri and Hamas to the education ministry of Saudi Arabia.

Middle East

As popular opposition to Israel spread across the Middle East in the second half of the century, many Arab governments funded new printings of the Protocols, and taught them in their schools as historical fact. They have been accepted as such by many Islamic extremist organizations, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Reportedly, Arabic editions issued in the Middle East were found on sale as far away as London.

Egypt

In a foreword to a translation of Shimon Peres' book The New Middle East, the Egyptian state-owned publisher al-Ahram editorialized in 1995:

When The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were discovered, some 200 years ago, and translated in various languages, including Arabic, the World Zionist Organization attempted to deny the existence of the plot, and claimed forgery. The Zionists even endeavoured to purchase all the existing copies, in order to prevent their circulation. But today, Shimon Peres proves unequivocally that the Protocols are authentic, and that they tell the truth.

An article in the Egyptian state-owned newspaper al-Akhbar on February 3, 2002 stated:

All the evils that currently affect the world are the doings of Zionism. This is not surprising, because the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which were established by their wise men more than a century ago, are proceeding according to a meticulous and precise plan and time schedule, and they are proof that even though they are a minority, their goal is to rule the world and the entire human race."

In October 2002, a private Egyptian television company Dream TV produced a 41-part "historical drama" A Horseman Without a Horse (Fares Bela Gewad), largely based on the Protocols, which ran on 17 Arabic-language satellite television channels, including government-owned Egypt Television (ETV), for a month, causing concerns in the West. Egypt's Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif announced that the series "contains no anti-Semitic material".

On November 17, 2003, an Egyptian weekly al-Usbu‘ reported that the manuscript museum at the Alexandria Library, displayed the first Arabic translation of the Protocols at the section of the holy books of Judaism, next to a Torah scroll. The museum's director Dr. Yousef Ziedan was quoted as saying in an interview:

"...it has become one of the sacred of the Jews, next to their first constitution, their religious law ... more important to the Zionist Jews of the world than the Torah, because they conduct Zionist life according to it ... It is only natural to place the book in the framework of an exhibit of Torah."

It also quoted him as saying that no more than one million Jews were killed by the Nazis, but Zionists manipulated the "knowledge that has reached the world".

Dr. Yousef Ziedan strongly denies these quotes, accusing al-Usbu‘ of attributing "fabricated, groundless lies" to him and stating that "the Protocols is a racist, silly, fabricated book":

"The story began with an article in an Egyptian newspaper, al-Usbu‘, two weeks ago (on November 17th, 2003), which alleged quoting from me utterly senseless statements intertwining facts with fancies. A month before, a journalist from the aforementioned newspaper interviewed me concerning the recent refurbishment of the manuscript and rare book museum. I handed her a written statement, as was the case with other journalists who covered the same news. Although, she concluded her article with my exact words, she started it with fabricated, groundless lies. She falsely reported me saying that I placed an edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion at the center of the museum alongside the Jewish Torah and divine books. Moreover, she claimed that I told her that this book is more significant then the Torah... On my part, I would like to maintain to the visitors of ziedan.com that the Protocols is a racist, silly, fabricated book. Perhaps, I should consider more thoroughly the Jewish issue on the academic level and furnish my vision of the interaction of religions. As civilized people, we totally renounce racism and call for tolerance and constructive interaction between people." ()

After the publication, director of the Library Dr. Ismail Serageldin issued a statement:

"Preliminary investigation determined that the book was briefly displayed in a showcase devoted to rotating samples of curiosities and unusual items in our collection. ... The book is a well-known 19th century fabrication to foment anti-Jewish feelings. The book was promptly withdrawn from public display, but its very inclusion showed bad judgment and insensitivity..."

The 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty demands the sides "to refrain from organizing, instigating, inciting, assisting or participating in acts or threats of belligerency, hostility, subversion or violence against the other Party."

Iran

The first Iranian edition of the Protocols was issued during the summer of 1978 at the time of the Iranian Revolution. In 1985 a new edition of the Protocols was printed and widely distributed by the Islamic Propagation Organization, International Relations Department in Tehran. The Astaneh-ye Qods Razavi (Shrine of Imam Reza) Foundation in Mashhad, Iran, one of the wealthiest institutions in Iran, financed publication of the Protocols in 1994. Parts of the Protocols were published by the daily Jomhouri-ye Eslami in 1994, under the heading The Smell of Blood, Zionist Schemes. Sobh, a radical Islamic monthly, published excerpts from the Protocols under the heading The text of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion for establishing the Jewish global rule in its December 1998–January 1999 issue, illustrated with a caricature of the Jewish snake swallowing the globe.

Iranian writer and researcher Ali Baqeri, who "researched" the Protocols, finds their plan for world domination to be merely part of an even more grandiose scheme, saying in Sobh in 1999:

"The ultimate goal of the Jews... after conquering the globe... is to extract from the hands of the Lord many stars and galaxies".

The Iran Pavilion of the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair had the Protocols, as well as The International Jew (reprints from Henry Ford's The Dearborn Independent) available.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian schoolbooks contain explicit summaries of the Protocols as factual:

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: These are secret resolutions, most probably of the aforementioned Basel congress. They were discovered in the nineteenth century. The Jews tried to deny them, but there was ample evidence proving their authenticity and that they were issued by the elders of Zion. The Protocols can be summarized in the following points:

1. Upsetting the foundations of the world's present society and its systems, in order to enable Zionism to have a monopoly of world government.
2. Eliminating nationalities and religions, especially the Christian nations.
3. Striving to increase corruption among the present regimes in Europe, as Zionism believes in their corruption and collapse.
4. Controlling the media of publication, propaganda and the press, using gold for stirring up disturbances, seducing people by means of lust and spreading wantonness.

The cogent proof of the authenticity of these resolutions, as well as of the hellish Jewish schemes included therein, is the carrying out of many of those schemes, intrigues and conspiracies that are found in them. Anyone who reads them — and they were published in the nineteenth century — grasps today to what extent much of what is found there has been realized.

Lebanon and Hizballah

In March 1970, the Protocols were reported to be the top 'nonfiction' bestseller in Lebanon. The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2004 by the US Department of State states that "the television series, Ash-Shatat ("The Diaspora"), which centred on the alleged conspiracy of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to dominate the world, was aired in October and November 2003 by the Lebanon-based satellite television network Al-Manar, owned by Hizballah."

Hamas

The Charter of Hamas explicitly refers to the Protocols accepting them as factual and makes several references to Freemasons as one of the "secret societies" controlled by "Zionists". The Article 32 of the Hamas Charter states:

The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.

Palestinian National Authority

The PNA frequently used the Protocols in the media and education under their control and some Palestinian academics presented the forgery as a plot upon which Zionism is based. For example, on January 25, 2001, the official PNA daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida cited the Protocols on its Political National Education page to explain Israel's policies:

Disinformation has been one of the bases of morale and psychological manipulation among the Israelis ... The Protocols of the Elders of Zion did not ignore the importance of using propaganda to promote the Zionist goals. The second protocol reads: 'Through the newspapers we will have the means to propel and to influence'. In the twelfth protocol: 'Our governments will hold the reins of most of the newspapers, and through this plan we will possess the primary power to turn to public opinion.'

Later that year the same newspaper wrote: "The purpose of the military policy is to impose this situation on the residents and force them to leave their homes, and this is done in the framework of the Protocols of Zion..."

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri appeared on the Saudi satellite channel Al-Majd on February 20, 2005, commenting on the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. "Anyone who studies The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and specifically the Talmud," he said, "will discover that one of the goals of these Protocols is to cause confusion in the world and to undermine security throughout the world."

On May 19, 2005, the New York Times reported that Palestinian Authority Minister of Information Nabil Shaath removed from his ministry's web site an Arabic translation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Other contemporary appearances

To a great degree, the text is still accepted as truthful in large parts of South America and Asia, especially in Japan where variations on the Protocols have frequently made the bestseller lists.

In Greece the Protocols have had multiple publications in recent decades, along with various commentaries depending on who published the book and what is their point of view. The Neo-Nazi group Hrisi Avgi ("Golden Dawn") consider the book to be an accurate document and distribute their edition to their members.

In February 2003, Australian publication Hard Evidence presented the Protocols as factual and that Jews were responsible for 2002 Bali bombing.

The New Zealand National Front sells copies published by their former national secretary, Kerry Bolton. Bolton also publishes (and the NZNF sells) a book entitled "The Protocols of Zion in Context" that seeks to refute the idea that the Protocols are a forgery.

United States

In the United States, the Protocols were republished as fact in 1991 in William Milton Cooper's Behold a Pale Horse.

The American retail chain, Wal-Mart, was criticized for selling The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on its website with a description that suggested it might be genuine. It was withdrawn from sale in September 2004, as 'a business decision'. It is distributed in the United States by some Palestinian student groups on college campuses, and by Louis Farrakhan's "Nation of Islam".

In 2002, the Paterson, New Jersey-based Arabic-language newspaper The Arab Voice published excerpts from the Protocols as true. The paper's editor and publisher Walid Rabah defended himself from criticism with the protestation (in Arabic) that "some major writers in the Arab nation accept the truth of the book."

During his October 2003 presentation at the College of Wooster at Cleveland, Ohio, Samir Makhlouf of the Presbyterian Peacemakers organization stated that the Protocols was a factual text that explains how Zionists have been taking over the world's politics, economics and communications. After the controversy became public, the group's representatives "agreed that they had made a grave mistake, and ... that antisemitism is anti-Christianity."

Soviet Union and post-Soviet states

Howard Sachar describes the allegations of global Jewish conspiracy resurrected during the Soviet "anti-Zionist" campaign in the wake of the Six-Day War:

"In late July 1967, Moscow launched an unprecedented propaganda campaign against Zionism as a "world threat." Defeat was attributed not to tiny Israel alone, but to an "all-powerful international force." ... In its flagrant vulgarity, the new propaganda assault soon achieved Nazi-era characteristics. The Soviet public was saturated with racist canards. Extracts from Trofim Kichko's notorious 1963 volume, Judaism Without Embellishment, were extensively republished in the Soviet media. Yuri Ivanov's Beware: Zionism, a book essentially replicated The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, was given nationwide coverage."

Similar picture is drawn by Paul Johnson: the mass media "all over the Soviet Union portrayed the Zionists (i.e. Jews) and Israeli leaders as engaged in a world-wide conspiracy along the lines of the old Protocols of Zion. It was, Sovietskaya Latvia wrote 5 August 1967, an 'international Cosa Nostra with a common centre, common programme and common funds'".

Despite stipulations against fomenting hatred based on ethnic or religious grounds (Article 282 of the Russian Federation Penal Code), the Protocols have enjoyed numerous reprints in the nationalist press after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In 1993, a district court in Moscow, Russia, formally ruled that the Protocols were faked in dismissing a libel suit by the ultra-nationalist Pamyat organization, which had been criticized for using them in their anti-Semitic publications.

In 2003, one century after the first publication of the Protocols, an article in the most popular Russian weekly Argumenty i fakty referred to it a "peculiar bible of Zionism" and showed a photo of the First Zionist Congress of 1897. The co-president of the National-Patriot Union of Russia Alexander Prokhanov wrote: "It does not matter whether the Protocols are a forgery or a factual conspiracy document." The article also contained refutation of the allegations by the president of the Russian Jewish congress Yevgeny Satanovsky.

As of 2005, the Protocols is "a frequent feature in Patriarchate churches".

On January 27, 2006, members of Russia's Public Chamber and human rights activists have proposed to establish a list of extremist literature whose dissemination should be formally banned for uses other than scientific research.

References

1. The Encyclopædia Britannica describes the Protocols as a "fraudulent document that served as a pretext and rationale for anti-Semitism in the early 20th century".
2. UNISPAL United Nations Economic and Social Council, Dissemination of racist and anti-Semitic hate material on television programs (Retrieved Sept 2005)
3. Svetlana Boym, "Conspiracy theories and literary ethics: Umberto Eco, Danilo Kis and The Protocols of Zion,": Comparative Literature, Spring 1999.
4. This material was originally exposed by Philip Graves in "The Source of The Protocols of Zion", published in The Times, 16, 17 & 18 August 1921, and has since been expanded in many sources.
5. See INRI, Jewish Messiah, Jewish view of Jesus.
6. Vadim Skuratovsky: The Question of the Authorship of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", Kiev, 2001. ISBN 966-72-73-12-1
7. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion by Patrick Bishop. The Washington Times, November 21, 1999, p.C10
8. The Fraud of a Century, or a book born in hell, by Valery Kadzhaya (Retrieved Sept 2005)
9. Morris Kominsky, The Hoaxers, 1970. p. 209
10. The Fraud of a Century, or a book born in hell, by Valery Kadzhaya (Retrieved Sept 2005)
11. Introduction to English edition by Victor E. Marsden
12. Max Wallace, The American Axis St. Martin's Press, 2003
13. "Jewish World Plot": An Exposure. The Source of "The Protocols of Zion". Truth at Last (PDF) by Philip Graves published at The Times, August 16-18, 1921
14. The Fraud of a Century, or a book born in hell by Valery Kadzhaya
15. Nora Levin, The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry 1933-1945. Quoting from
16. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf: Chapter XI: Nation and Race, Vol I, pp. 307-308.
17. Islamic Anti-Semitism in Historical Perspective at ADL
18. Exporting Arabic anti-Semitic publications issued in the Middle East to Britain Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies. October 10, 2005
19. Plot summary at the ADL
20. Egypt: U.S. Concerns Regarding Proposed Anti-Semitic Mini-Series Office of the Spokesman at the U.S. State Department
21. Protocols, politics and Palestine at al-Ahram Weekly
22. Jewish Holy Books On Display at the Alexandria Library: The Torah & the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' December 3, 2003
23. Ibid.
24. Public Statement by the Director of the Library of Alexandria
25. Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty Article III. Part 2.
26. The Booksellers of Tehran,” The Wall Street Journal Online, 2005-10-28, also Frankfurt Book Fair informs public prosecutor's office of anti-Semitism accusations
27. CMIP report: The Jews in World History according to the Saudi textbooks. The Danger of World Jewry, by Abdullah al-Tall, pp. 140–141 (Arabic). Hadith and Islamic Culture, Grade 10, (2001) pp. 103–104.
28. Efraim Karsh, Rethinking the Middle East, Routledge, 2003. p. 101
29. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2004 Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the US State Department February 28, 2005
30. The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS) August 18, 1988 (The Avalon Project at Yale Law School) retrieved October 2005
31. "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in official PA ideology, 2001-2002 a Bulletin by Itamar Marcus at Palestinian Media Watch. (Retrieved January 2006)
32. The anti-Jewish lie that refuses to die by Steve Boggan, The Times, March 02, 2005
33. PNA Minister of Information removes the Protocols from their website (NYT - by subscription)
34. Anti-Semitism Worldwide 1995-6 (Project for the Study of Anti-Semitism, Tel Aviv University), pp. 265-6. For more information on the popularity of the Protocols in Japan, see the First Things Review of "Jews and the Japanese Mind", The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Aum, and Antisemitism in Japan (PDF) by David G. Goodman at HUJI and the article Fugu Plan.
35. Anti-Semitism in Greece: Embedded in Society An Interview with Moses Altsech
36. Confronting Reality: Anti-Semitism in Australia Today by Jeremy Jones. Fall 2004
37. Arthur Hertzberg, Jews: The Essence and Character of a People Harper Collins, 1999. p 34.
38. The Paterson 'Protocols' by Daniel Pipes. New York Post. November 5, 2002
39. A documentary film, Protocols of Zion (2005), connects the Protocols to a resurgence of anti-Semitism following the September 11 World Trade Center attacks.
40. Message of hate brought to Wooster campus, College of Wooster begins bridge building published in Cleveland Jewish News (retrieved Feb. 19, 2006)
41. Howard Sachar, A History of the Jews in the Modern World (Knopf, NY. 2005) p.722
42. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (1987) p.575-576
43. Russian Court Rules 'Protocols' an Anti-Semitic Forgery By Michael A. Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, November 28, 1993 (Retrieved Sept 2005)
44. Protocols of contention, Argumenty i fakty, September 10, 2003
45. Eye on Eurasia: Believing the Protocols By Paul Goble UPI, April 13, 2005, also Anti-Semitism in the Post-Soviet States by Betsy Gidwitz. (JCPA) (April 2003)
46. Russia’s Public Chamber to Produce List of Literature to Ban, MosNews, January 27, 2006

• Will Eisner, The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. ISBN 0-393-06045-4
• Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, 1967 (Eyre & Spottiswoode), 1996 (Serif) ISBN 1897959257
• Hadassa Ben-Itto, The Lie That Wouldn’t Die: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 2005 (Vallentine Mitchell). Review
• Steven Leonard Jacobs, Mark Weitzman, Dismantling the Big Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. (2003) ISBN 0-88125-785-0
• Danilo Kis presents a narrative history of the "Protocols" as The Book Of Kings And Fools in The Encyclopedia of the Dead, 1989 (Faber and Faber)
• Richard S. Levy, A Lie and a Libel: The History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (A translation of Binjamin W. Segel's 1926 book) (1996), University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803292457.
• Kenneth R. Timmerman, Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America (2003), Crown Forum. ISBN 1400049016
• Stephen Eric Bronner, A Rumor About the Jews: Reflections on Antisemitism and the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 0195169565
• Cesare G. De Michelis, The Non-Existent Manuscript. A Study of the Protocols of the Sages of Zion (Translated by Richard Newhouse; University of Nebraska Press, 2004) ISBN 0-8032-1727-7
• United States Congress, Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Protocols of the Elders of Zion: a fabricated "historic" document. A report prepared by the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws (Washington, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1964)
• Isaac Goldberg, The so-called "Protocols of the Elders of Zion": a Definitive Exposure of One of the Most Malicious Lies in History (Girard, Kansas, Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1936).
• Lucien Wolf, The Myth of the Jewish Menace in World Affairs or, The Truth About the Forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion (New York, The Macmillan company, 1921).

See also

• Anti-Semitism
• Black propaganda
• Conspiracy theory
• False document
• Incitement
• Plagiarism
• Priory of Zion
• Protocols of Zion (film)
• Psychological projection
• Scapegoating
• Tanaka Memorial
• A Racial Program for the Twentieth Century
• The permanent instruction of the Alta Vendita

External links

• Text of the Protocols (PDF). This is Victor Marsden's translation of Sergei Nilus's Russian edition. Originally published by The Britons Publishing Society, London, 1921.
• The Fictitious Protocols: A notorious work of modern antisemitic propaganda. Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Refutation of "The Protocols"
• The Modern Protocols of Zion
• Essay by Shaul Wallach on the Protocols
• 1921 investigation by the Times of London into the Protocols: contains transcripts and .PDF files of the Times articles
• Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu - pamphlet by Maurice Joly on which The Protocols are based - from Project Gutenberg
• The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion: Plagiarism at its Best by José Delacruz
• The Paris Operations of the Russian Imperial Police by Ben B. Fischer. History Staff Center for the Study of Intelligence, CIA (declassified). 1997
• A Hoax of Hate at ADL
• What's the story with the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"? at Straight Dope
• Eli Eshed on the true history of the Protocols and the graphic novel by Will Eisner about it
• The Protocols - a Muslim perspective by Yaniv Berman. March 05, 2005
• Anti-Semitic Propaganda: The "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" at Religious Tolerance
• Famous Fakes at NOVA (TV series) by WGBH, PBS
• The poisonous Protocols by Umberto Eco at The Guardian. August 17, 2002.
• Template:Ru icon Tsarism and Black Hundredism the role of the Tsarist state in the history of the Protocols. 1992 International Conference for National Egalitarianism and Responsibility for Fomenting Racial Hatred
• Template:Ru icon From the Christian Point of View. One hundred years since the first publication of the Protocols of Zion at RFERL

• Anti-Semitism
• Hoaxes
• Literary hoaxes
• Political forgery
• Propaganda examples
• Dubious historical resources
• Conspiracy theories
• 1903 books
• Jewish Russian and Soviet history
• Historical revisionism (political)