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Turin book fair causes a stir
Anti-Israel groups say Italy's decision to honor Israeli writers=20
 ignores the plight of Palestinians. Festival organizers say their=20
 goal of broadening horizons is misconstrued.
By Tracy Wilkinson
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

May 8, 2008


ROME =E2=80=94 When the prestigious annual Turin Book Fair opens today, it
will be amid a cavalcade of fanfare that organizers could not
possibly have wanted.

Riot police will guard the event. Rival demonstrators will make their
stand. Boycotts, diplomatic incidents and mutually recriminating
outrage swirl in the background.

How did a mild-mannered book festival become the focus of such
impassioned attention? It began with the decision by organizers to
honor Israeli writers at this year's fair, which coincides with the
60th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state.

That unleashed cries of protest from a number of Arab and Italian
intellectuals and left-wing activists, who charged that celebrating
Israeli letters ignores the plight of the Palestinians.

Sponsors of the 21-year-old fair, the second largest in Europe with
more than 300,000 visitors last year, reacted angrily, saying that
their motives were being misconstrued. They received the backing of
several Italian leaders, including President Giorgio Napolitano, a
former communist, who will inaugurate the five-day exposition
featuring traders, writers and more than 1,400 publishers from all
over the world.

Dario Fo, the Italian Nobel laureate in literature, joined the fray
Wednesday. He said he will not obey a boycott that some anti-Israel
groups have called. But instead of reading from his new book, "The
Apocalypse Postponed," he plans to use his appearance to talk about
the Palestinian cause.

"Many have chosen to forfeit the fair, but I think it is necessary to
attend and to raise a taboo theme: Palestine," Fo told the leading
daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.

He said the fair should be dedicated "to two peoples, the Israeli and
the Palestinian, united at least this once, under the auspices of the
best of their intellectuals."

A similar controversy clouded the March book fair in Paris, which
also honored Israeli writers. Among the Israeli participants there,
and the invitees in Turin, were David Grossman, Amos Oz, A.B.
Yehoshua and Aharon Appelfeld -- some of whom have been quite
critical of their government's policies.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators burned a couple of Israeli flags in a
Turin piazza last week and held a two-day "seminar" at the University
of Turin dedicated to what they termed the Israeli government's abuse
of Palestinians.

The vociferous Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan, in Turin to galvanize
protests against the fair, said it was a political event in cultural
trappings that only boosted Israel and its occupation of Palestinian
territories. He was especially critical of Napolitano for lending his
support to the fair.

The president hit back.

"Criticism of the Israeli government's policies is entirely
legitimate, particularly its actions within Israel," Napolitano said
in a note released by his office. "What is not acceptable is any
position that denies the legitimacy of the state of Israel . . . and
its right to exist in peace and security."

A group sympathetic to Israel wants to demonstrate outside the fair
waving Israeli flags. A group sympathetic to the Palestinians wants
to march through Turin on Saturday and may end up outside the fair.
Hundreds of police officers will be on hand.

As it happens, the book imbroglio is taking place as a new,
right-wing Italian government forms. Some of its key figures, who are
members of a former fascist party, are eager to curry favor with
Israel. They have jumped into the debate, fanning the flames as they
go.

Israel's ambassador to Italy, meanwhile, says he is not too worried
about all the fuss. The proposed boycott and other protests are the
work of "extremists," Gideon Meir said.

The festival's organizers are exasperated, noting the irony that a
book fair is meant to broaden horizons, not build barriers.

Their feelings were perhaps captured in a front page editorial
cartoon in Corriere della Sera that showed books forming a Star of
David, each with the slogan, "Reading is Freedom."

wilkinson at latimes.com

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