Amazon faces pressure for selling antisemitic film Kyrie Irving promoted

“The book and the film are designed to inflame hatred and, now that it was popularized by Mr. Irving, will lead directly to the harm of Jews,” mentioned the letter, a duplicate of which was seen by The Washington Post.

“These views aren’t different viewpoints on history, they are outright antisemitic hate. They amplify longstanding antisemitic tropes about Jewish power, greed and claims that Jews control the media.”

The American Jewish Committee additionally asked its supporters to help them urge “Amazon to reaffirm its commitment to fight antisemitism by removing this anti-Jewish swill.”

Amazon didn’t reply to The Post about the way forward for the ebook and documentary on its web site. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post.)

The 2014 ebook “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” and 2018 documentary by the identical identify are nonetheless out there on Amazon, and they’re every listed as a “Best Seller.” Neither at the moment comes with a disclaimer about dangerous content material.

Two weeks in the past, Irving tweeted in regards to the film to his 4.6 million followers. He deleted the tweet however refused to apologize for it for every week earlier than relenting and posting an apology on Instagram on Thursday. The Nets suspended him for at the least 5 video games, and Nike ended its relationship with the NBA star. The ADL turned down his provided donation of $500,000 for use in anti-hate causes.

Kyrie Irving lit a flame. The NBA, high to backside, watched the hearth unfold.

“The book has become hot because of the news. All the sellers, including Amazon, have cashed in,” mentioned Alvin H. Rosenfeld, director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and a professor at Indiana University. “It’s very ugly.”

Rosenfeld mentioned banning books just isn’t an answer.

He believes Amazon might proceed selling the ebook with a disclaimer that clearly outlines its nature. He added that Amazon ought to donate its earnings from the ebook and the documentary to organizations that battle hate speech.

“It’s irresponsible to make money from such a toxic book,” he mentioned.

The ebook just isn’t the one antisemitic ebook being bought by Amazon, mentioned Matt Boxer, an assistant analysis professor within the Hornstein Program in Jewish Professional Leadership at Brandeis University.

The web site nonetheless sells copies of “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler. “I am not talking about the scholarly edition, but the original version,” Boxer mentioned.

Rosenfeld is instructing Hitler’s ebook in addition to “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” to his college students this semester. He believes it is very important examine chosen chapters from these texts and talk about them responsibly.

Delusional, defiant Kyrie Irving is a stain the NBA might now not ignore

Rosenfeld mentioned the ebook Irving promoted is “simply a recycling of old hateful ideas.” The ebook is filled with antisemitic accusations which have been disproven many instances, he mentioned.

The ADL tabulated 2,717 antisemitic incidents all through the United States in 2021, it mentioned in its letter. This was a 34 p.c enhance from 2020. FBI hate-crime experiences have additionally confirmed elevated violence and bigotry towards Jews, the letter mentioned.

Last 12 months, a couple of days after the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, Amazon eliminated “The Turner Diaries” from its digital cabinets. The 1978 novel portrays a gaggle of white supremacists who assault the Capitol to overthrow the U.S. authorities.

Even earlier than “The Turner Diaries” was eliminated, Amazon was selling it with a disclaimer about its racist content material.

“While it is important to defend private companies’ right to sell products that they see fit, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences,” Boxer mentioned, including that booksellers must cope with the fallout from the contents of their books.

“There is a lot more antisemitism in the public sphere in recent times because people with such beliefs are less afraid of sharing them,” he mentioned.

Boxer mentioned he believes Amazon’s vetting course of for books and documentaries fails to acknowledge merchandise that comprise hate speech. “Amazon doesn’t seem to have the knowledge or the engineers in place to understand if a book is toxic,” he mentioned. “To them all books are just products meant to be sold.”

On its web site, Amazon Studios outlines that it encourages free speech and that “all titles undergo manual and automated reviews before a licensing decision is made.”

The guidelines outline that “movies or scripts shouldn’t be bigoted or hateful when taken as a whole and we don’t permit movies, scripts, reviews or other content that are nothing but hate speech.”