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ISRAEL
IS NOT A GUEST OF HONOUR! FREE PALESTINE!
Sign the statement below protesting the invitation of Israel as
guest of honour at the Turin Book Fair.
Events in Italy leading up to the
national demonstration in support of the people of Gaza and for the
boycott of Turin Book Fair, 10 May:
29
March
Turin:
700 people rally in support of the boycott of the Turin Book Fair;
Milan
& Rome:
activists picket Feltrinelli bookshop, a major Italian publisher of
the left, which announced it will take part in the Book Fair.
21
April
Bologna:
picket of Feltrinelli. An enormous Palestinian flag unfurls from
the top of Asinelli tower which is the symbol of the city.
29
April
Bologna:
The dean at the university bars a seminar about the boycott -
students occupy the university and have the seminar anyway.
1
May
Turin:
Mayday march - 30,000 demonstrate, Israeli and US flags are burnt in
the main square.
4-5
May
public meetings in various cities.
5-6
May
Turin:
University, Seminar on "Western Democracies and the ethnic cleansing
of Palestine" with Gianni Vattimo, Ilan Pappe (on video) Tariq
Ramadani, Aharon Shabtai and Jonathan Rosenhead.
7
May
Rome:
public assembly to discuss how to take part in the national demo in
Turin.
8
May
Milan:
Vigil in front of Corriere della Sera, one of the main Italian daily
newspapers, which attacked the boycott.
10
May
Turin:
National demonstration, thousands expected.
For more information: in Italian see
http://www.infoaut.org; in English see
www.globalwomenstrike.net
Read the organizers statement, and
support the demo by writing to the email address, below.
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The situation of the Palestinian
population is getting worse day by day. From the blockade/embargo
against the Gaza Strip and Israeli raids by land and air in all the
Palestinian occupied territories, to building the Apartheid Wall and
the deteriorating living conditions of refugees and Palestinian
residents in Israel, the Israeli authorities are persistently
committing war crimes and violations of civil rights, ignoring
dozens of UN resolutions and forcing millions to live in disastrous
conditions.
Every day, at every checkpoint, soldiers humiliate elderly people,
women and children, robbing the Palestinians of their daily life and
of the time necessary to work, study, participate in politics, and
plan their future. Scarcity and even sheer lack of food and fuel,
produce a situation of intolerable poverty, while sanitary
conditions in the refugee camps remain appalling.
What Israel is performing is literally politicide – the deliberate
attempt at destroying social and political resistance, by means of
periodic ethnic cleansing – against a humiliated, oppressed and
occupied Palestinian people. All forms of organization, resistance,
dissent and demonstration are forbidden to Palestinians. Even the
most peaceful protest triggers the Israeli army to employ teargas or
to shoot into crowds, while any militant action is punished with
mass punishment. This is the macabre and racist bookkeeping of 21st
century wars: for each Israeli dead or imprisoned, hundreds of
Palestinians and Lebanese are killed or arrested.
In this context of brutal misuse of power, international
institutions remain silent, the western press censors and minimizes,
the European and North American governments insist on stronger
economic, diplomatic and military alliances with the Israeli
government. Even the use of unconventional weapons and the
devastation caused by the war against Lebanon in 2006, did not
prevent all the G8 governments from proclaiming their faithfulness
to their best ally in the Middle East.
With the same logic, Italian institutions are openly aligning
themselves with Israel at all levels: from the President of the
Republic to the governments of recent years, from local institutions
to military and commercial ones, the strategic alliance with Israel
is never discussed, in spite of the bloodshed that Palestinians must
endure. From Silvio Berlusconi to Walter Veltroni, from Sergio
Chiamparino to Giuliano Ferrara, from Gianfranco Fini to the most
influential television and press journalists, they all pay the
ritual homage of unconditional solidarity with the politics of the
great ally, and the most conformist intellectuals are no exception.
A radiant Berlusconi announced right after his election success that
the first diplomatic journey of the new government will take place
in Israel.
As a further insult, this year − which marks the sixtieth
anniversary of the 1948 war and which the Palestinians experience as
a symbol of mourning, both in their memory and in their present
lives − one of the biggest cultural initiatives in Europe, the Turin
International Book Fair, has chosen to invite Israel as the “guest
of honour”, like the Paris Book Fair. In spite of the plea, signed
by international writers and intellectuals from all over the world −
among them Palestinian and Israeli − for the cancellation of such
invitation and in spite of their demand that it be replaced with a
dedication to a just peace, the city of Turin has decided to endorse
the invitation.
This is a clear choice. It is a political choice, a one-sided
choice: not only in the light of what is currently happening in
Palestine, but also because the memory of 1948 is treated as a
“celebration” in spite of the Nakba, the “catastrophe” of the
Palestinians. 850,000 refugees on the run, 531 villages razed to the
ground, tens of thousands dead, a dreadful legacy of blood and
violence. Countless people, from Arab society and the whole world,
who are appalled by what is happening, are asking: what is there to
celebrate, to “showcase”, what is there to be happy about?
In our world of global and permanent war with its militarized
culture, writers too must put on their helmet: such is the price
demanded of the institutions of the countries waging war in exchange
for a career, fame and money. For those who have neither fame nor
money, for the landless and those without peace, where is
hospitality? Where is honour? For the memory of the losers, the
persecuted and oppressed, in Palestine as elsewhere, what hard
high-backed chairs have been prepared?
Once again it will be up to the social and internationalist
movements, the citizens, workers and students, also in response to
the pleas from Palestine, to side with those who bear the brunt of
the barbarous wars and the acts of infamy of global capitalist
domination. The time has come to surge out onto the streets of Turin
and for our protest to reach the Lingotto, the seat of the Book
Fair, in order to demand:
– an end to the Israeli embargo and US and EU sanctions against the
Gaza Strip;
– an end to military occupation of the territories;
– that the Apartheid Wall be destroyed;
– that the dignity and rights of Palestinians living within Israel’s
borders be respected ;
– the right of return for all refugees;
– that all Palestinian political prisoners be freed.
While we denounce the authoritarian and militarist politics of
Israel, and the difficulties that plague whoever shares a political
culture or historical memory different from the official one, we
demonstrate for:
– the end of diplomatic, economic and military alliance between
Italy and Israel;
– cultural policies which take into account the memory and reasons
of the oppressed and criticize the oppressors;
– full political freedom in Israel for the movements against war and
the occupation;
– a full and effective lack of restrictions on historic research
within Israeli universities;
– the release of all Israelis who have refused to report for
military service.
ISRAEL IS NOT A GUEST OF HONOUR!
FREE PALESTINE!
MEETING POINT:
CORSO MARCONI, TURIN
10TH MAY 2008 2pm
ASSEMBLEA FREE PALESTINE – TORINO
Email your support to:
adesioni10maggio@infoaut.org
Cc:
payday@paydaynet.org &
womenstrike8m@server101.com
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