The Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, has officially opened the prestigious Turin Book Fair amid protests over the choice of Israel as the event's guest of honor. "No dialogue is possible if there is a refusal to recognize Israel," Napolitano said at Israel's special stand at the fair. There can be no "rejection of the reasons for its birth or of its right to exist in peace and security," the Italian head of state added. Israel's stand was swamped by hundreds of people, many draped in the Israeli flag, with one group holding a banner that read: "I feel Jewish today."
"A special thanks with all my heart goes to president Napolitano for his strong position this year, after the calls over recent months to boycott the Book Fair because of Israel's presence," said Israel's new ambassador to Italy, Gideon Meir. Like its Parisian counterpart in March, the Turin fair is honoring Israel on the 60th anniversary of the State's creation. This had sparked protests and boycott calls from Muslim countries and intellectuals as well as from some left-wing politicians in Italy. Meir told the 'La Repubblica' newspaper that Napolitano's decision to open the book represented "a very important moral position to left and right wing extremists that come to Turin to boycott the fair and want to delegitimize Israel."
Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan said the fact that Napolitano was to be the first head of state to open the fair, which now in its 21st year, made it "a political and not a cultural event." Ramadan, who is backing the boycott calls, is the grandson of Hassan El-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. However, Yahya Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic religious community, expressed his "complete solidarity" with the Italian president's decision to inaugurate the fair.
Turin's chief rabbi Alberto Moshe Somekh said that the city had shown "great courage" in deciding to honor Israel. At a special service in Turin's main synagogue, he said the tribute marked not only the state of Israel's 60 years but also "4,000 years of our presence on the world stage as 'People of the Book'".
