{"id":2939,"date":"2019-06-20T22:04:51","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T02:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=2939"},"modified":"2019-06-20T22:04:51","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T02:04:51","slug":"penguin-orders-independent-review-of-book-over-antisemitism-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=2939","title":{"rendered":"Penguin orders independent review of book over antisemitism claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2019\/jun\/17\/penguin-pedro-banos-how-they-rule-<\/a><\/p>\n

Penguin orders independent review of book over antisemitism claims<\/span><\/p>\n

Alison Flood<\/p>\n

\n

Julia Neuberger to analyse Pedro Ba\u00f1os\u2019s How They Rule the World, which includes passages about the Rothschild family<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Clearly expresses robust opinions\u2019 … Pedro Ba\u00f1os<\/p>\n

Penguin Random House<\/a>\u00a0has asked\u00a0Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger<\/a>\u00a0to independently review one of its books, Pedro Ba\u00f1os\u2019s How They Rule the World, after allegations of antisemitism made against the author continue to grow.<\/p>\n

Concerns had been raised over imprint Ebury\u2019s decision to cut 30,000 words from the English-language edition of the Spanish book, including passages about the Rothschild family, a banking dynasty often subject to antisemitic conspiracy theories. Ba\u00f1os, a colonel in the Spanish army, had also called the Rothschilds \u201cdominant\u201d and has compared them to the Illuminati in interviews. The cover of both the English and Spanish editions also features octopus tentacles \u2013 imagery long associated with antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Ebury said\u00a0last week that it had\u00a0<\/a>undertaken a thorough review<\/a>\u00a0into the book and concluded that while the author \u201cclearly expresses robust opinions\u201d, they had found no evidence of antisemitism. But on Friday, Ebury asked Neuberger to conduct an external review of both the English language and a translation of the Spanish edition of the book, along with any other aspects that she feels are relevant to making an overall assessment. Neuberger \u2013 author of Antisemitism: What It Is. What It Isn\u2019t. Why It Matters \u2013 was also asked by the publisher to consult with a small number of other independent experts.<\/p>\n

Neuberger, who has not finished her review, told Radio 4 on Monday that the UK edition of the book was definitely not antisemitic and said it was unfair to describe the tentacle imagery as antisemitic, saying it had been used to denote people controlling other people since the 19th century.<\/p>\n

Looking at the 30,000 words cut from the Spanish edition, she said Ba\u00f1os\u2019 writing \u201cbetray[s] a sort of fascination\u201d with the Rothschilds, \u201cthat they\u2019re very powerful and very rich and sort of secretive\u201d.<\/p>\n

She told the Today programme: \u201cIt\u2019s not antisemitic in itself, but it hints at stuff about the Jewish conspiracies: powerful, half-hidden, secretive groups mainly of Jewish men bankers. That all goes back to something called the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is a fake \u2013 it was proved to be a fake actually in London in 1921 \u2013 but nevertheless it keeps reappearing..<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what would push it over the line is if he\u2019s known to have made lots of allusions, if you like, to some kind of Jewish conspiracy. Because that is antisemitism. I think where people allege that there is a Jewish conspiracy to control the world or control banking or whatever it is, that is antisemitism \u2026 because it evokes the stuff about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and we know that that itself is pretty nasty.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said there were some questions to be asked about the edits that were made, and that Ba\u00f1os\u2019s past needed to be looked at more closely.<\/p>\n

Penguin Random House<\/a>\u00a0chief executive Tom Weldon said the external review was \u201can unusual step, which is a mark of how seriously we view the complaints made and the complexity and sensitivity of the issues involved\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe will give full consideration to the review and any conclusions and recommendations it makes within the context of our long-held commitment to publish responsibly across a spectrum of opinion and a diversity of voices.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the-world-julia-neuberger-antisemitism-claims<\/a><\/p>\n

theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2019\/jun\/17\/penguin-pedro-banos-how-they-rule- Penguin orders independent review of book over antisemitism claims Alison Flood Julia Neuberger to analyse Pedro Ba\u00f1os\u2019s How They Rule the World, which includes passages about the Rothschild family \u2018Clearly expresses robust opinions\u2019 … Pedro Ba\u00f1os Penguin Random House\u00a0has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1723,1720,1721,1722],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2940,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2939\/revisions\/2940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}