Dibs

It’s book-fair time again in Damascus! As the sounds of artillery draw ever closer, “under the patronage of President Bashar al-Assad, Minister of Culture Riad Na’asan Agha opened Tuesday the 22nd session of the International Book Exhibition at al-Assad Library,” reports the Syrian Arab News Agency. Lasting from August 1 through 11, the fair is “a cultural activity including a number of seminars, evenings and lectures… 19 Arab and foreign countries in addition to 42 organizations and commissions are taking part in the exhibition which displays about 40 thousands titles and programs,” reports SANA. Which volumes will be on display for the curious book-loving crowds? Because the Syrian government is always coming up with something new! Just last year, a new Syrian edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a popular offering at the Cairo International Book Fair, where it was “exhibited with other Syrian-published anti-Semitic books,” reports Israel’s Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center, whose site includes pictures and translations of the text. Dedicated to suicide bombers (direct translation: “To the shaheeds of the blessed Al-Aqsa [mosque] and all those who died the deaths of martyrs for the sake of Allah…. May Allah grant me the privilege of dying the death of a martyr for the sake of Allah”), the book “combines Christian European and traditional Islamic anti-Semitic myths with political propaganda encouraging Palestinian terrorism and predicting the disappearance of the State of Israel. The Syrian publishing house Dar Al-Awael notes in its foreword that publication was authorized by the Syrian Ministry of Information, providing additional proof that the current Syrian régime is infected with a vicious strain of anti-Semitism also marketed to the Arab-Muslim world.” Publishing house Dar Al-Awael is a member of the Syrian Publishers’ Association and the Arab Publishers’ Association. Its Web site features an animated graphic of a quill-pen emerging from a vessel and writing in what looks like blood. But maybe it’s cherry juice, since the site is in Arabic, which Dibs! can’t read. Dar Al-Awael’s other books include one whose cover features a menorah in flames, and another whose cover shows a stereotypical Jew clutching the world globe in his hands. At the Syrian fair two years ago, “the President was represented by the member of al Baath Arab Socialist Party’s Regional leadership Ahmad Dergham,” according to Syrialive.com. Waaait, is that “Baath” as in Saddam Hussein’s “Baath”? D’you think the fair has a selection from that San Francisco-area publisher that specializes in books about sadomasochism and enema pleasure? No?