TORINO (ITALY)
10th May 2008
Manifestation for Palestine
ISRAEL IS NOT A GUEST OF HONOUR!
Gaza will sink – has declared the
president of the Popular Committee against Blockade, Jamal al-Khoudari
– and the whole world bears responsibility for this. Immediate actions
must be taken to put pressure on the occupation, in order to end this
crisis”.
The situation of the Palestinian population is getting worse day by
day. From the blockade/embargo against the Gaza strip and the
land-and-air raids performed by the Israeli army in all the Palestinian
occupied territories to the building of the Apartheid Wall and the
living conditions of the refugees and the Palestinian residents in
Israel, the Israeli authorities are persistently committing war crimes
and violations of the civil rights, ignoring dozens of UN resolutions
and forcing millions to live in disastrous conditions.
Every day, at every check-point, the 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, plan their
future. Scarcity and even sheer lack of food and fuel produce a
situation of intolerable poverty, while the sanitary conditions in the
refugee camps remain appalling.
What Israel is performing is literally a politicide – the deliberate
attempt at destroying the social and political subjectivity, also by
means of episodic ethnic cleansing – against the dismembered,
humiliated, oppressed and occupied Palestinian people. All forms of
organization, resistance, dissent and demonstration are forbidden for
Palestinians. Even the most peaceful protest causes the Israeli army to
employ tear-gas or to shoot the crowd, while every militant action is
punished by means of mass retaliation. This is the macabre and racists
bookkeeping of the XXI century wars: for each single Israeli dead or
prisoner, hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese are killed or arrested.
In this context of brutal misuse of power, the international
institutions remain silent, the western press censors and minimizes,
the European and North American governments stipulate and tighten
economic, diplomatic and military alliances with the Israeli
government. Even the use of non-conventional 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 Middle East.
With the same logic, the Italian institutions are openly aligning
themselves with Israel at all levels: from the President of the
Republic to the governments of the recent years, from the local
institutions to the military and commercial ones, the strategic
alliance with Israel is never discussed, in spite of the bloodshed the
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, nobody avoids
paying 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 live 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 Palestinians 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 Nakbah, the “catastrophe” of the Palestinians. 850,000 refugees
on the run, 531 villages razed to the ground, tens of thousands of
dead, a dreadful legacy of blood and violence. Countless appalled
people, from the Arab society and from the whole world, are asking:
what is there to celebrate, to make a “showcase” of, what is there to
be happy about?
In our world of global and permanent war, also culture is militarized,
and writers must put on their helmet too: such is the price asked by
the institutions of the war-waging countries in exchange for a career,
fame and money. For those who have neither fame nor money, for the
landless and without peace, where is hospitality? Where is honour? For
the memory of the losers, the persecuted and oppressed, in Palestine as
elsewhere, what high-backed chairs have been prepared?
Once again it will be up to the social and internationalist movements,
the citizens, the workers and the students, also in response to the
pleas coming in from Palestine, to side with those who bear the brunt
of the barbarous wars and the acts of infamy of the global capitalist
domination. The time has come to surge out onto the streets of Turin
and reach with our protest the Lingotto, the seat of the Book Fair, in
order to demand:
– the end of the Israeli embargo and the US and EU sanctions against
the Gaza strip;
– the end of the military occupation of the territories;
– that the Apartheid Wall be destroyed;
– that the dignity and the rights of the Palestinians living within the
Israeli borders be respected ;
– the right to return for all refugees;
– that all Palestinian political prisoners be set free.
While we denounce the authoritarian and militarist politics of Israel
and the difficulties that, in that country, plague whomever shares a
political culture or a historical memory different from the official
one, we demonstrate for:
– the end of the diplomatic, economic and military alliance between
Italy and Israel;
– cultural policies which take into due account the memory and the
reasons of the oppressed and criticize the oppressors;
– a full political freedom, in Israel, for the movements against the
war and the occupation;
– a full and effective lack of restrictions on historic research within
Israeli universities;
– the release of all Israelis who refused to report for military
service.
ISRAEL IS NOT A GUEST OF HONOUR!
FREE PALESTINE!
MEETING POINT:
CORSO MARCONI, TURIN
10TH MAY 2008
H 14:00
Assemblea Free Palestine – Torino
Forum Palestina
Unione Democratica Arabo Palestinese – Italia
International Jewish Solidarity Network
Network Antagonista Torinese
Csoa Askatasuna - Torino
Csa Murazzi - Torino
Collettivo universitario autonomo - Torino
Collettivo studenti autorganizzati - Torino
Comitato di solidarietà con il popolo palestinese – Torino
Comitato Ricordare la Nakbah
International Solidarity Movement – Italia
Rdb – Cub
Confederazione Cobas
Sinistra Critica
Csoa Gabrio - Torino
Partito Comunista dei Lavoratori
Partito dei Comunisti Italiani
Controcorrente Sinistra PRC
Circolo Internazionalista del Lavoratori – Torino
Comitato 18 Giugno – Torino
Partigiani della pace – Torino
Laboratorio occupato del precariato sociale Crash! – Bologna
Movimento Autorganizzato Occupazioni – Bologna
Collettivo universitario autonomo – Bologna
Cso Ex Carcere – Palermo
Collettivo universitario autonomo – Palermo
Csa Dordoni – Cremona
Collettivo autonomo modenese
Comitato con la Palestina nel cuore – Roma
Centro culturale internazionale Casa della pace – Roma
Cpo Rialzo – Cosenza
Csoa A. Cartella – Reggio Calabria
Universitari in movimento – Bari
Gabbiotto Infoshop – Bari
Coa Transiti – Milano
Assemblea milanese per il boicottaggio del salone del libro di Torino
Csa Vittoria - Milano
Social Forum Cecina – Livorno
Spazio Antagonista Newroz – Pisa
Precari autorganizzati - Pisa
Progetto PrendoCasa - Pisa
Collettivo Aula R Scienze Politiche - Pisa
Movimento Antagonista Livornese - Livorno
Csa Godzilla - Livorno
Officina Sociale Rifugio - Livorno
El Chico Malo - Livorno
Area Antagonista Napoletana
Csoa Officina 99 - Napoli
Laboratorio occupato Ska - Napoli
Centro sociale Diego Armando Maradona - Napoli
Associazione Zataar – Genova
Associazione amicizia Sardegna Palestina
Comitato Palestina – Bologna
Associazione di Amicizia italo-palestinese onlus – Firenze
Associazione di Amicizia Italia-Palestina – Brescia
Laboratorio politico “Resistenza universitaria” – Roma
Collettivi universitari – Firenze
Cpa Firenze sud
Rete degli studenti medi – Firenze
Associazione Amicizia Italia-Palestina – Firenze
Collettivo politico Scienze politiche - Firenze
Pmli – Biella
Network autorganizzato – Napoli
Circolo Internazionalista – Napoli
Csoa Terra Terra – Napoli
Collettivo studentesco dell’Orientale – Napoli
Vesuvio zona rossa – Napoli
Action – Roma
ASP Associazione Svizzera Palestina
Associazione Ghassan Kanafani – Lucca
Associazione I Mediterranei – Milano
Associazione Michele Mancino – Roma
Associazione politico-culturale L´altra Lombardia – Su la testa
Associazione Wael Zwaiter
Carc
Centro di Iniziativa Popolare – Roma
Centro popolare occupato La Fucina - Sesto S. Giovanni
Circolo Arci Agorà – Pisa
Collettivo 20 luglio – Palermo
Comitato di solidarietà internazionalista Dino Frisullo
Comitato di sostegno alla resistenza palestinese – Versilia
Comunità araba – Napoli
Comunità Palestinese di Roma e del Lazio
Coordinamento di solidarietà con l'intifada – Palermo
Coordinamento per l'unità dei comunisti
Coordinamento toscano di solidarietà con la Palestina
Corrispondenze metropolitane – Roma
Gruppo di sostegno al popolo palestinese - Massa e Carrara
Infopal (redazione)
Libreria Gramigna – Catania
Lotta e unità per l’organizzazione proletaria
Militanz CdP – Napoli
Progetto "la Sicilia con la Palestina"
redazione de L'Ernesto
redazione di Resistenze.org
Redazione di Salento Che Fare
Rete dei Comunisti
Rete nazionale Disarmiamoli!
Rete No War Roma e Lazio
Salaam, ragazzi dell'Olivo – Trieste
Comitato Palestina – Varese
Libreria Quarto Stato Aversa - Caserta
Libreria Sabo S.Antimo - Napoli
Libreria Baol - Salerno
Partito di Alternativa Comunista
Associazione Culturale Germogli
For adhesions: adesioni10maggio@infoaut.org