Radical left-wing parties in Italy are calling for a boycott of the Turin International Book Fair, whose organizers have selected Israel
as a special guest of honor at the fair in honor of its 60th year of independence.
The Turin book fair will be held in May of this year, just in time for Israel’s 60th Independence Day. Dozens of Israeli prominent authors and cultural figures were invited to this celebration, but radical left-wing Italian parties have stated that “Israel should not be rewarded in any fashion as long as the occupation of the Palestinians continues."
“The Israeli army continues to murder and commit human rights violations on a daily basis,” said provincial secretary of the Italian Communists in Turin, Vincenzo Chieppa. He noted that the Communist Party demands that “Palestinians also be invited to the fair as guests of honor.”
These repeated calls to boycott the fair have caused a great deal of controversy in Italy, and have stirred considerable debate between moderate and far left-wing parties in the country.
“Some left-wing party members calling for this boycott have made statements that are borderline anti-Semitic,” said Giuseppe Cadarola of the Italian Democratic Party. The organizer of the fair, Ernesto Ferrero, also joined in the fray noting that “only the Nazis similarly feared books and ideas.”
Ferrero also told Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth that “there will be no change in plans; Israel will be the guest of honor at the book fair.”
Israel has taken part in the Turin Book Fair, which selects a different country as its guests of honor every year.
“As the guest of honor, Israel intends to display not only prominent Israeli authors and poets, but the full range of Israeli culture in its totality,” said the curator of the Israeli booth at the fair, Angelo Pezzana. “Israeli singers, architects and young artists have all been invited to take part in the fair.”
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