CENTRE SIMON WIESENTHAL - SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - CENTRO SIMON WIESENTHAL 64, avenue Marceau - 75008 Paris - Tel. +33 (0) 1 47 23 76 37 - Fax: +33
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Relay - Belgium Press Shops Respond Immediately to Wiesenthal Centre Protest: Protocols of Zion Novel Removed from Shelves

Paris, 1 March 2007

Alex Williams, Executive Director of Relay - Belgium Press Shops S.A., responded within 24 hours to the Wiesenthal Centre's protest against the distribution, through its chain, of an antisemitic novel entitled "The Protocols of Zion".

This Tsarist forgery that inspired the Nazi Holocaust is banned in most European Union member-states. The novelized version alleges Jewish responsibility for 9/11 and the London and Madrid bombings.

Williams advised the Centre by email that "instructions have been given to remove this book from the shelves and I have asked the distributor to recall the title."

The Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, commended this immediate action, stating that "your removal of 'Les Protocoles de Sion' from the sales outlets of Relay - Belgium sets an example for your industry. It sends a message of social responsibility to your clientele and, especially, to young people."

Samuels added, "I will henceforth look to your Press Shops network as a model for the creation of "hate-free zones" in Europe."

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33.609.77.01.58.