PRESS RELEASE
It is difficult to be critical of Israel without having one’s words misinterpreted, twisted, their meaning inverted. A controversy centering on the Turin Book Fair is raging in Italy, amid conflicting claims and counter-claims. French Journalist Pierre Assouline in a recent blog (monde.fr) has further distorted the terms of the debate.
The facts are these: The Turin Book Fair first designated Egypt as guest of honor, before changing its mind and inviting Israel, to commemorate that country’s 60th anniversary of statehood. A movement made up of political parties, individuals and organizations supporting Palestinian human rights demanded that the invitation be rescinded and another country invited. In their eyes, it was indecent to commemorate a state—by declaring it “guest of honor”—whose government shows no respect for the Palestinian people’s human rights, and inflicts upon them daily humiliation. When the Turin Book Fair administration refused, the movement appealed to writers and to the public to boycott the event. In response to a question from the Italian press agency ANSA about the “boycott appeal”, I clearly stated that it was neither normal nor decent to commemorate Israel when Israeli state and government policies in the devastated occupied territories are clear for all to see.
The boycott campaign is intended as criticism of the “guest of honor.” It is not an attempt to prevent Israeli authors from attending or from expressing themselves. It does not refuse to engage them in debate. A propaganda campaign denounced the initiative as anti-Semitic, a denial of freedom of speech. Or, as Pierre Assouline puts it, “a boycott of Israeli authors.” Mr. Assouline also attributes to me a falsified statement. I stated, he alleges, in an interview with La Repubblica: “It is clear that we can approve of nothing coming from Israel.” In the first place, I never spoke with anyone from la Repubblica; in the second, I never made such a statement. I have repeatedly stated that all women and men of conscience—a category by no means restricted to Palestinians or Arabs—should boycott the Turin Book Fair (as well as the Foire du Livre de Paris) when the guest of honor is a country that refuses to respect the rights and the dignity of peoples. I further stated that refusal to remain silent on international issues is the only way to bring an end to the violence wracking the Middle East.
It is curious indeed to observe how those who defend Israel’s policies are prepared to twist words, to lie, and to claim that the position adopted by the boycott appeal is equivalent to anti-Semitism, that it denies Israeli authors’ freedom of speech! The accusation is absurd. To refuse to “commemorate” Israel and its repressive policies has nothing to do with anti-Semitism or with denial of freedom of speech. It would be appropriate to emulate Israeli poet Aaron Shabtaï’s decision to boycott, as an individual, “both the Turin Book Fair and the Salon du Livre de Paris, by not joining my country’s delegation.” He adds: “I do not believe that a state that maintains an occupation, that daily commits crimes against civilians, warrants being invited to any cultural event whatsoever. Such a thing goes against culture; it is an act of barbarity disguised as culture. It displays support for Israel, and perhaps also for France, which supports the occupation. I do not intend to participate.”
Aaron Shabtaï will be called a “self-hating Jew”, who stands alongside all the “anti-Semites” of the world. The same old refrain. Common sense should be our guide: the international community’s silence over the plight of the Palestinians is shameful enough without adding insult to injury. A human conscience with a minimum of values, principles and dignity can have nothing to do with honoring a state whose political and military practices are an insult to our consciences and to our honor.
You should as well make clear that yours is an appeal, and not a “fatwa” as some Italian newspapers reported .
THANK YOU FOR THIS INFORMATION. I HAVE SENT IT ON TO FRIENDS IN USA, DENMARK AND EGYPT.
[->http://www.counterpunch.com/tariq02052008.html]
Why I Will Not Participate in the Turin Book Fair
By TARIQ ALI
When I agreed to participate in the Turin Book Fair, which I have done before, I had no idea that the ‘guest of honour’ was Israel and its 60th birthday. But this is also the 60th anniversary of what the Palestinian call the ‘nakba’the disaster that befell them that year, when they were expelled from their villages, some killed, women raped by the settlers. These facts are no longer disputed. So why did the Turin Book Fair not invite Palestinians in equal numbers? 30 Israeli writers and 30 Palestinian writers (and I promise you they exist and are very fine poets and novelists) might have been seen as a positive and peaceful gesture and a positive debate might have taken place. A literary version of Daniel Barenboim’s Diwan Orchestra, half-Israeli, half-Palestinian. Such a move would have brought people together, but no. The cultural commissars know best. I have argued vigorously with some of the Israeli writers visiting the fair on other occasions and would have happily done the same again if conditions had been different. What they decided to do is an ugly provocation.
It would appear that culture is increasingly bound to the political priorities of the US/EU nexus. The West is blind to Palestinian suffering. The Israeli war on Lebanon, the daily reports from the Gaza ghetto do not move official Europe. In France, we know, it is virtually impossible to criticise Israel. In Germany, too, for special reasons. It would be sad if Italy went the same way. How many times do we have to stress that criticism of Israel’s colonial policies is not anti-semitic. To accept this is to become willing victims of the blackmail the Israeli establishment uses to silence its critics. There are some courageous Israeli critics like Aharon Shabtai, Amira Hass, Yitzhak Laor and others who will not permit their voices to be muffled in this fashion. Shabtai refused to attend this fair. How could I do otherwise.
It is one thing to support Israel’s right to exist, which I do and always have done. But from that to extrapolate that this right to exists means that Israel is given a blank cheque to do what it wishes to those it expelled and whom it treats like untermensch is unacceptable. Personally I favour a single Israel/Palestine in which all citizens are equal. I am told this is utopian. It may be but it is the only long-term solution. Because of the subject matter of my novels I am often asked (most recently in Madison, Wisconsin) whether it might be possible to recreate the best times of al-Andalus and Sicily when three cultures co-existed for a long time. My reply is the same: the only place today where it could be recreated is Israel/Palestine.
We live in a world of double standards, but it is not necessary to accept them. It is sometimes the case that individuals and groups to whom evil is done, inflict evil in return. But the first does not justify the second. It was European anti-semitism that tolerated the judeocide of the second world war of which the Palestinians have now become the indirect victims. Many Israelis are aware of this fact but would rather not think about it. Many Europeans regard Palestinians and Muslims today as they once regarded the Jews. That is the irony visible in press comments and television coverage in virtually every European country. It’s a pity that the Turin Book Fair bureaucracy decided to pander to the new prejudices sweeping the continent. Let us hope their example is not followed elsewhere.
Tariq Ali is the author of Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope, is published by Verso. His new book, The Duel: Pakistan In the Flightpath of American Power, will be published by Scribner in July.
[The Israel Apartheid Week 2008->http://www.apartheidweek.org/]
Another example of Arabs politicising a non-political event, distorting facts, and ruining the spirit of the bookfair by raising protest and threatening security.
This is a BOOK FAIR — meant to celebrate books and the achievements of authors. It is NOT a political event in the least.
It’s entirely hypocritical, because there would be NO protest from the Palestinians/Arab if China, whose actions towards Tibet, or string of human rights violations have been “open to the world to see” (to quote Ramadan in this article). Needless to say, these same groups of people would be silent (even rejoicing, perhaps) if an Arab nation such as Saudi Arabia, or Iran, were to be chosen (and I’m not going to even begin to write about their undemocratic, well-known suppression of human rights…)
You also, in your article, fail to mention how these groups threatened to disrupt the event, which makes people wonder about their safety when attending the event. In this day and age, Palestinians and Arabs have proved that blowing oneself up and killing “infadels” at a book fair is not out of the question.
All-in-all, perhaps instead of complaining, protesting, and ruining other people’s enjoyment of an innocent, non-political event, you should tell the very people that you support to a) value education, learn to read/write, and attend university; and b) Write some decent books and get yourself a guest of honor invitation!!!
Dear Mr Ramadan,
You advocate a boycott of the Turin and Paris book fairs, in view of Israel’s human rights record. Is it correct to assume, then, that you advocate, in equally peremptory terms, a boycott of all cultural events featuring Arab or Muslim states with similar or worse records of violence, brutality or oppression of their own people?
If so, would you be kind enough to provide links or citations I might locate in order to read your calls for such boycotts? For example, would you be kind enough to provide links or citations to your calls on boycotts of events featuring art, culture, history, literature, or religion with the participation of, for example, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria or Iran? (Or, indeed, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, or Sudan?)
Or, as you invoke human rights as a basis for the boycott, is it your view (contrary to that of all leading international norms and institutions) that human rights violations against Muslims are worse when committed by non-Muslims than when committed by Muslims? Surely you will know, on the basis of Amnesty International and other leading NGO and IGO reports, that the sum-total of abuses against Muslims by Muslim (or Muslim majority) states exponentially exceeds any such abuses committed by Israel.
Accordingly, I would assume that your call for boycotts against such states would be equally, or indeed that much more, virulent, in comparison to your advocacy of a boycott against Israel.
Thank you for your kind attention to this message. I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely Yours,
Prof Eric Heinze,
Faculty of Laws,
Queen Mary, Univ. of London
[email protected]
Dear Prof. Eric Heinze,
As a former student of yours, I have to clarify something very important to the readers of this site need to know about you-You have been a fervent advocate and supporter of the zionist states, therefore your request and questions are totally bias and I hope that Mr. Ramadan won’t spend a iota of his time answering your twisted mind.
RE: “As a former student of yours, I have to clarify something very important to the readers of this site need to know about you-You have been a fervent advocate and supporter of the zionist states, therefore your request and questions are totally bias and I hope that Mr. Ramadan won’t spend a iota of his time answering your twisted mind.”
A bit of advice: Your ex-professor’s arguments should be refuted by counter-argument — assuming you have any — and not by simply labelling the professor a “advocate and supporter of zionism.” First of all, that was already clear by the nature of the professor’s critique; second, if you think calling someone a supporter of Israel automatically negates their argument, you’re just revealing how weak your own argument is. To sum up: Critique the argument, not the background of the person who made it. Otherwise, you show yourself to be an uneducated, ignorant moron, which, based on your writing, is precisely what I expect you are.