05 March 2008
Arab and other Muslim countries have announced a boycott of the Paris Book Fair later this month because Israel is this year’s guest of honor. Several pan-Arab and Islamic groupings, including the Arab League and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (INESCO), have urged Arab and Muslim countries to stay away from the fair. So far, Algeria, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Yemen have confirmed they are to pull out. The fair will mark the State of Israel’s 60th anniversary by welcoming 39 Israeli writers to present their books. The main pavilion at the festival is to be draped in Israeli flags and posters to note that Israel is the guest of honor. In a statement by INESCO, it says it urged a boycott because “the crimes against humanity that Israel is perpetrating in the Palestinian territories .... constitute, in themselves, a strong condemnation of Israel, making it unworthy of being welcomed as a guest of honor at an international book fair."
The French section of the World Jewish Congress expressed outrage at the boycott. In a statement, the section’s vice-president Bernard Gahnassia criticized the “astonishing silence of French writers” when their Italian colleagues had voiced a strong protest over similar attempts to boycott the Turin book fair. Gahnassia called on the French population to attend the Paris book fair in huge numbers “in order to manifest that France has always been, and will always be, the country of Enlightenment and Democracy.”
