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More than 20,000 entertainment industry leaders, including household names, have urged Amazon and Barnes & Noble to stop selling anti-Semitic titles and warned executives that they are “profiting from hate.”
“Hebrews to Negroes,” a book and a movie, recently saw a surge in purchases after NBA star Kyrie Irving promoted it on social media, propelling it to Amazon’s bestseller list, and receiving rave reviews. Pressure from Jewish groups to remove the titles.
In an open letter to Jeff Bezos, James Daunt, and other leaders at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, the signatories noted that despite “private letters and public calls to remove these fallacious books and movies from their sites,” So far, you have refused to act.”
‘Your company is profiting from hate,’ letter accuses post Provided by Creative Community For Peace, a nonprofit entertainment industry organization.
It warned that the headlines “did enormous harm to the Jewish community while spreading dangerous misinformation to a vulnerable public who might be vulnerable to its propaganda.”
“These works promote many unsubstantiated anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories, including making up Hitler quotes, false claims about Jewish power and control, Jews making up the Holocaust and Jews being fake Jews,” it said.
“The claims in these works have led to the persecution and murder of millions of Jews over the centuries.”
Noting that “there are more hate crimes per capita against Jews than any other minority and more religion-based hate crimes against Jews than any other religion” in the United States, it declares that “it is unacceptable to allow such hate crimes” in Incite on your platform. “
As of Thursday, the titles appeared to no longer be available on the Barnes & Noble website.
A Barnes & Noble bookstore in Ben Salem, Pennsylvania, on March 14, 2022. (Matt Rourke/The Associated Press)
The Peace Creative Community said in a statement that those who signed the letter “are among the first in the entertainment industry to publicly and collectively call for the removal of films, hoping to remove future radicalization and indoctrination.”
Those who put their names on the letter include actresses Mila Kunis, Debra Messing and Mayim Bialik; former Paramount Pictures CEO Shirley Lansing; Saban Capital Group Chairman and CEO Heim Saban ; David Draiman of Disturbed; and comedian Eliza Schlesinger.
The companies can “continue to profit from hatred and anti-Semitism while turning a blind eye to the fears of the Jewish community, or they can choose to be allies and be on the right side of history,” Ari Ingel, director of the Creative Community for Peace, said in a statement.
“Companies do not need to help facilitate the spread of dangerous conspiracy theories that threaten the Jewish community,” he said. “We implore them to take prudent and responsible steps to remove this content.”
Amazon is under growing pressure to stop selling “Hebrews” to blacks, with a focus on the belief that the true descendants of ancient Israelis are modern African-Americans, while today’s Jews deceitfully claim their ancestry . It also contains a range of other anti-Semitic claims, including Holocaust denial and false allegations that Jews controlled the American slave trade.
Monday, American Jewish Committee Ask Amazon Fix this by removing books and movies.
Last week, the Anti-Defamation League sent a letter to Amazon on behalf of itself and Irving’s team, the Brooklyn Nets, calling on the company to either remove “vicious anti-Semitic books and related videos” or label them offensive description content.
More than a week ago, Irving posted a link on his Amazon page to “Hebrews to Blacks: Awakening Black America,” a documentary based on the book of the same name.
The film has since become a bestseller, topping all documentaries on Amazon Video. The movie now has 370 reviews on IMDb, Amazon’s popular movie database. A snapshot of the title page from February shows that there were only 8 comments at the time.
Irving rejected criticism he drew after posting a link to the movie and remained defiant after he was suspended by the Nets for refusing to say he had no anti-Semitic views. Ultimately, however, he apologized for promoting the film, saying he was “aware of the negative impact of my posts on the Jewish community, and I take responsibility.”
As long as the film remains on Amazon, the company will continue to charge half of the purchase price and distribute the other half to the filmmakers. Some have called on the company to donate its proceeds from books and movies to groups fighting the spread of hate.
Amazon’s guidelines for filmmakers who distribute films on the company’s platforms say that “all films undergo manual and automated review” and are designed to catch copyright infringement or sexually explicit content and “specifically target any group or individual.”
The company’s bookseller policy says Amazon can remove “offensive” content. It also said it would allow a wide range of views to be broadcast.
“As booksellers, we believe it is important to provide access to the written word, including content that may be considered objectionable,” the policy said.
in January, Barnes & Noble removed “The Agreement of the Elders of Zion” on its website following a social media backlash against a notorious fictional depiction of Jewish plans for global domination.
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