Leading Israeli poet savages invitation to Israel to join book fairs
A barbarian act masked as culture
Turin will host the International Book Fair in May 2008. The Guest of Honour is Israel. This has resulted calls for its boycott and many authors have declared their support for the boycott and will not be attending.
Aharon Shabtai, the greatest living Israeli poet says “no” both to the Turin and to the Paris Book Fair. Here is the letter he sent to Edna Degon, in charge of organizing the Israeli presence at the coming Paris Book Fair.
Aharon Shabtai
Dear Edna,
Thank you for your letter.
I do not believe that a State that maintains an occupation, committing on a daily basis crimes against civilians, deserves to be invited to any kind of cultural week. That is, it is anti-cultural; it is a barbarian act masked as culture in the most cynical way. It manifests support for Israel, and even to France that sustains the occupation. And I do not want to participate.
Kind regards,
Aharon Shabtai
7 December, 2007
Culture - Aharon Shabtai
The mark of Cain won't sprout
from a soldier who shoots
at the head of a child
on a knoll by the fence
around a refugee camp
-for beneath his helmet,
conceptually speaking,
his head is made of cardboard.
On the other hand,
the officer has read The Rebel1;
his head is enlightened,
and so he does not believe
in the mark of Cain.
He's spent time in museums,
and when he aims his rifle at a boy
as an ambassador of Culture,
he updates and recycles
Goya's etchings
and Guernica.
1 : English title of the famous essay of Albert Camus, L'homme révolté