Did AFP Play Into Hezbollah Row Over Anne Frank?

Not a Good Match: Hezbollah and Anne Frank. (Middle East Issues photo illustration/Getty Images)

First, let me make it clear: There's little doubt that Hezbollah, the rogue Lebanese militia, political party and one-time terrorist organization, is into holocaust denial. It denies Israel the right to exist. It's all of a piece for Israel-deniers also to deny that the holocaust took place. And it wouldn't at all be surprising if Hezbollah misused Lebanon's already heavy-handed censorship laws to bully schools out of using certain texts that refer to the holocaust.

That, apparently, is what Hezbollah did, successfully, regarding The Diary of Anne Frank. According to a Nov. 6 Agence France Press report, "Anne Frank's diary has been censored out of a school textbook in Lebanon following a campaign by the militant group Hezbollah claiming the classic work promotes Zionism. The row erupted after Hezbollah learned excerpts of The Diary of Anne Frank were included in the textbook used by a private English-language school in western Beirut."

The report, by Natacha Yazbeck, a Lebanese reporter who writes for AFP, goes on to quote from Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel's report on the book ("What is even more dangerous is the dramatic, theatrical way in which the diary is emotionally recounted"). She then notes that "a member of the school board, Jimmy Shoufani, told AFP the school dropped the textbook from its curriculum after the controversy erupted. He asked that the school not be identified."

He asked that the school not be identified? I can understand a source preferring to remain anonymous when a flammable mixture of Hezbollah, antagonism and anti-Semitism abetted are part of the context. But the guy was quoted. Why keep the name of the school a secret? To protect who? The students aren't in danger. Call it what you will, Hezbollah isn't big on going after children, and it's not as if Hezbollah wouldn't be aware of the school carrying the alleged textbook. Which leaves the school itself and the embarrassment factor--if, in fact, that was the case.

But here's the thing. There aren't that many major English-language private schools in Beirut. There's International College and there's the American Community School. Neither school's board of directors or trustees lists a Jimmy Shoufani.

There are a few other professional or cultural English-language schools, but not for schoolchildren (and of course there's AUB, the American University in Beirut). In a southern suburb of Beirut--in Choueifat, a small Christian and Druze enclave at the edge of Hezbollah country--there's the fine and legendary International School of Choueifat, an English-language school, which doesn't list its directors. Could it be the culprit?

I'd like to know.

It isn't very becoming of a school to censor a classic of 20th century literature, even less so for a school in or near Beirut, supposedly the 2009 World Book Capital. Yet operating as it does so close to Hezbollah's nerve (and quite nervy, if you've ever met its goonish militiamen) centers, opting to remove Anne Frank rather than invite confrontation would seem to be a defensible move. Survival in a place as fractured as Lebanon is achieved at the price of endless compromises. And a school like Choueifat has working internet connections: Anne Frank is all over the web. If it takes removing a hard copy or two to placate the ogre next door, so be it, as long as Anne's words, themselves all-too familiar with ogres next door, keep flowing. In a sense, the Choueifat school's decision (if it is, in fact, the Choueifat school) takes on an ironically Frank-like dimension, and could be taught that way in the very context of the Anne Frank diaries.

But the question remains: Why is AFP hiding the school's identity? What was the textbook in question? Why not cite it? Why not put the Anne Frank passages in some sort of context? And isn't it possible that AFP simply fell into a Hezbollah trap, reporting on a second-hand report on Hezbollah's Al Manar, itself possibly an opportunistic fabrication at the expense, as always, of what Hezbollah calls "the Zionist Entity" (because it still plays those juvenile games of refusing to call Israel by its name)?

Meanwhile, press and bloggers have picked up the AFP report and spread it wide. The more reason to question, if not the authenticity of the report, at least its various holes.

Update: A correspondent writes:

Lebanese schools are broken down between French teaching schools and English teaching schools. Only Arabic, History, Geography and in later classes History of Arab Sciences are taught in Arabic. Maths, sciences, econ, literature, grammar and all other subjects are taught in the English/French languages. So basically around 50% of all schools are English-language schools and 50% are French schools. If you want to go into more details, you can actually study for a French Baccalaureate and skip some of the classes taught in Arabic, or do what they call a 'high school program' for the English equivalent (IB or O/A levels).

Anne Frank was most likely taught in an English literature class versus a history class; therefore, it could have been taught at any school not just IC or ACS (most likely ACS if I had to bet on it though. Also check this article out ).

There you go, Lebanese schooling in a nutshell. Jimmy Shoufani could be a board member of one of hundreds of potential schools.

Thanks for the note Jad. (Check out Jad's blog.)

See Also:

• The 2006 Lebanon War: Israel and Hezbollah Square Off
• Is Hezbollah Still a Terrorist Organization?
• Hezbollah Rising Over Lebanon
• Is Anti-Semitism an Arab Phenomenon?
• A Brief History of Zionism
• UNESCO Declares Beirut 2009 World Book Capital