This flyer Italiano

 

Call from Assemblea Free Palestine for 10 May Turin demo

 

Turin demonstration 30000 people, 1 May 2008

 

Palestinian Appeal to International Civil Society

 

Italian publishers’ appeal against the invitation of Israel  as the guest country to the Turin Book Fair.  In Italian see.

 

Revoke now the decision to devote the Turin Book Fair to Israel - signed internationally by academics, MEPs, students, workers & teachers.  In Italian see.

 

Demonstrations in Italy (Italiano)

 

Michael Kalmanovitz & Giorgio Riva interviewed on local Italian radio

Report of the picket of the Italian Embassy London

Photos of the picket

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A new design for the flag for the state of Israel. Shimon Tzabar

Protest against Israel as “guest of honour” at the Turin Book Fair

Picket the Italian Embassy

14, Three Kings Yard, London W1 ( Bond St)

Monday, 31 March 2008, 12 noon -1pm

All welcome: bring your banners, placards & loudhailers

We are outraged that the Turin Book Fair has invited Israel to be “guest of honour” to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Zionist state -- the anniversary of the “Nakba”, the Catastrophe, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

Israel, on its own behalf and on behalf of the US which arms and defends it, is raining death, disability & destruction on Palestinian people. This imperialist state continues its blockade of Gaza, preventing power, food & humanitarian aid from getting through, & earlier this month killing unarmed civilians, including 25 children.

Those of us who are Jewish are particularly outraged that the Israeli deputy defence minister has threatened people in Gaza with a “shoah” -- a holocaust.  To propose a shoah against

Palestinians validates shoahs – including that inflicted on the world by the Nazis. 

Zionism has hidden & undermined the internationalist tradition of Jewish struggle against all forms of racism, exploitation & state terrorism. 

Italian & international calls for boycott of the Book Fair have begun.
“It is a barbarian act masked as culture in the most cynical way . . . and I do not want to participate.” Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai
“All women & men of conscience should boycott the Turin Book Fair.” Professor Tariq Ramadan

We support the Forum Palestina demonstrations (29 March) in Turin, Rome & Milan which are demanding $ Revoke the military agreement between Israel & Italy $ End the massacres & the blockade of Gaza $ Dismantle the apartheid wall $ One democratic state in Palestine, where Arabs & Jews have the same rights.

Please email this letter or write your own
& cc Global Women’s Strike & Payday men’s network

LETTER TO THE ITALIAN EMBASSY

To find email of the Italian Embassy where you are http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Italy
If you are based in the UK send faxes to: +44 20 7312 2230 or email sa.amblondra@esteri.it

We protest against the outrageous decision of the Turin Book Fair to make Israel its guest of honour.   If this decision to invite and honour Israel is not rescinded, the Book Fair must be boycotted.

The invitation has sinister echoes: on 7 April the Royal Family in Britain hosted a dinner at Windsor Castle for the Jewish National Fund, a key Zionist organisation that has dispossessed and expelled Palestinian people from their land. 

We find it all the more astonishing that President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano plans to open the Fair on 8 May considering that the Fair’s President, Rolando Picchioni, was a member of the Masonic Lodge P2, led by Lucio Gelli, who was not only a fervent admirer of the Fascist leader Mussolini, but a liaison officer with the Hermann Goering SS division.  In the ‘70s the P2 infamously planned a right-wing coup d’état in Italy. 

Those of us who are Jewish are particularly outraged that the Israeli State is so eager to take a part in the fair organized by an old associate of Nazis.  This collaboration, however, is less surprising following Israel’s deputy defence minister Vilnai’s call for a “shoah” – a holocaust – against people in Gaza.  To propose a shoah against Palestinians validates all shoahs – including that inflicted on the world by the Nazis. 

Calling for a boycott in response to inviting the Israeli State to the Paris and Turin Book Fairs, Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai said:

“The book event, or any other kind of exhibition in which the Israeli State is invited, is not a way to promote peace in the Middle East, and not a way to bring justice to the Palestinians, but only propaganda to give Israel an image of being a liberal and democratic society. A State which maintains an occupation and commits daily crimes against civilians does not deserve to be invited to whichever cultural week.”

The Union of Palestinian Writers and Intellectuals has also called for a boycott.  And there are protests, demonstrations and boycott demands planned throughout Italy: on 5th February the headquarters of organizers of the Fair, Fondazione del Libro, was occupied; Italian book publishers have launched an appeal; a petition is being circulated and signed internationally by MEPs, students, workers, teachers and prominent individuals; demonstrations took place in Turin, Milan and Rome on 29th March; and the Italian Embassy in London was picketed on 31st March. 

For the organisers of the Book Fair to honour Israel in the week before Nakba is not only a provocation but also a disgraceful defence of the murder, rape and torture that is the Israeli occupation.  

This occupation is one with the occupation of Iraq: military control of oil and water in the Middle East for the real axis of evil – US, Israel and their European stooges.  And now the Italian authorities have shown they are complicit in the additional crime of Nakba denial.

Global Women’s Strike www.globalwomenstrike.net  020 7482 2496

Payday men’s network www.refusingtokill.net  020 7209 4751