An Italian newspaper is being pressed to remove a notorious anti-Semitic tract from a Web site it hosts.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded in a letter this week that the Italian daily La Repubblica remove the text of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which was posted on one of the newspaper’s online discussion forums.
The tract “appears in its entirety, without explanation and out of context, on your Web site forum entitled ‘Missiles on Kabul,’ ” a Wiesenthal Center official wrote in a letter to La Repubblica’s editor.
“We consider that La Repubblica bears responsibility for what is published under its name and logo.
“This document is clearly in violation of the published rules of your Web site that stipulate the nonacceptability of offensive language inciting to hatred, which is the case of ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ — a text that has been called ‘a warrant for genocide.’ “
The Protocols were first penned in the 1890s to expose a supposed Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world.
The tract, which has been translated into various languages and published around the world, has led directly to the killings of Jews.
The full Italian text of the Protocols was posted Oct. 9 by a member of the “Missiles on Kabul” forum who used the Web name “Zaratustra.”
Dozens of messages are posted on the forum each day.
The posting of the Protocols prompted a discussion that included outraged reaction from several other forum members.
“I didn’t believe that in my country there was still someone able to propose obscene idiocy like the sadly celebrated Protocols, which by now even the worst high school student knows are a forgery,” wrote another forum member who used the name Franca.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
