Publishers of neo-Nazi, racist and anti-Semitic literature were expelled from the annual Brussels book fair Saturday for having disturbed the public order.
The decision to close the controversial stand of Avalon Publishers House was made after a stormy debate on freedom of expression turned into an all-out scuffle between the publishers and left-wing protesters.
The Avalon editors, who were expelled by police order, denounced what they called a “scandalous blow to the fundamental notion of freedom of expression.”
A spokesperson for the publishing house said in a television interview, “We are the only ones who cannot express ourselves, now that the whole world is reacting against the Rushdie affair.”
This was a reference to the international firestorm over British author Salman Rushdie, whose “Satanic Verses” was declared heresy by Moslems throughout the world. Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini has called for Rushdie’s assassination.
But a representative of Belgian Jewish organizations, Judith Kronfeld, pointed out that Belgium has laws that prohibit and condemn books, articles or declarations that apologize for fascism or Hitlerism.
Among the books displayed at Avalon’s stand were revisionist tomes that declare the Holocaust was a hoax or deny the existence of the Nazi gas chambers during World War II.
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