In a functional democracy, one of the basic principals
is that there should be the recognition of the right of individuals to hold
their own opinion. This is often extended to groups, as is natural, since
groups are nothing more than individuals who share things in common.
The right to hold an opinion also entails the right to
express that opinion, even if it is in dissent from the dominant or majority
one. There are many ways to express an opinion, especially a dissenting one,
and two of the most civil and, therefore, most popular, are writing them down
and allowing people to read them and manifesting them by marching in
demonstrations.
Last 19 August, the Union of Italian Islamic
Communities (UCOII) expressed their opinion through a paid advertisement
published in three newspapers having local distribution in the national
territory. In the advertisement, it was written that the massacres that saw the
Lebanese population killed indiscriminately in massive carpet bombing campaigns
that also created a refugee population of a million, at the hands of Israel, as
well as a land invasion in their territory with tanks, (in addition to the
occupation of the Sheeba Farms), were comparable to Nazi war crimes.
On 26 August, a pacifist march in Assisi also saw
several protesters carrying a photo of Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, and
the slogan �Leader of Arab Dignity.�
In the current climate, with Italy about to send 2,496
soldiers on a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, the mass media and the
government itself is scrambling to show themselves �worthy� of leading the
mission. That means that there is a relentless campaign to reinforce the series
of �Italian� values, which happen to coincide with the hegemony of the current
world order and the maintenance of its dominant worldview that is blatantly
biased in favour of Israel.
The magisterial branch of the State has already opened
an investigation as to whether to proceed in accusing the UCOII of �incitement
to racial hatred� for their advertisement, a criminal offence. This appears
absolutely ludicrous in a regime of democracy, especially considering that the
advertisement was directed against the policies of a State and not a race. In
addition, Italy is the country of Oriana Fallaci, the woman who makes a decent
living by writing bestsellers that are little more than invective against the
entire Muslim world, attacking their values, culture and beliefs. If Fallaci�s
opinion is acceptable and legitimate to express, why is the idea expressed in
the advertisement, criticising the actions of a State that was reducing another
sovereign State to rubble and killing their people arbitrarily for the simple
crime of living in Lebanon, at that moment, an enemy of Israel, not given the
same right of legitimacy, even if it does not mention race or religion at all?
What has been the reaction that the political world
and the mass media have been inducing the general public to follow? The
�opposition� political parties, on the Right, naturally have followed the line
drawn by Riccardo Pacifici, leader of the Roman Jewish Community of �Unanimous
Condemnation.�
What is rather more interesting is the reaction of the
Left and its government. Marco Pannella, leader of the Radical Party, a person
who stopped making sense a long time ago, telephoned the Corriere della Sera
from Cambodia, where he was attending an event commemorating Gandhi�s Satyagraha,
non-violent resistance. Showing disgust for the advertisement and especially
the marchers in Assisi he said, � . . . often they don�t understand who is the
aggressor or the reasons of those who have been attacked.� To Pannella, the
leader of the campaign to add Israel to the European Union, clearly, poor
little Israel is the victim of the war, not the aggressor.
Piero Fassino, the leader of the major Left party,
Left Democrats (DS) said, � . . . our soldiers in Lebanon are not going merely to
guarantee that the government of Beirut is fully sovereign and can work on the
disarming of Hezbollah, but also to protect Israel from whoever wishes to
destroy it.�
Wait a minute . . . that mission that even the
pacifists, the pro-Palestinian left has supported is not designed to disarm
Hezbollah, but to guarantee the ceasefire and let the Lebanese government
resolve, according to their own will, the internal turmoil that is the
aftermath of the Israeli invasion once Israel has returned within its own borders
from the entire territory of Lebanon. Fassino is either confused, or he is
showing the cards in hand without being aware of it.
Coming from a still higher place, we have the next
move to condemn the UCOII. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called in an ad
hoc meeting the group known as the �Consulta� to sign a �Statement of
Values.� Who is the Consulta? It is an official organ of the Ministry
itself that deals with the theme of dialogue between the State and the Islamic
community in Italy and integration of those practicing the Muslim faith. It is
composed of 32 members, half of whom are ministerial functionaries and the
remainder are representatives of the leading Islamic communities in Italy. The
UCOII is one of the major groups, connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and
active in 124 mosques out of a total of 250 and in 70 Islamic Centres in Italy.
Of the 16 representative members, even before having the text of the Statement,
15 have said they would sign it. Whoever does not sign will be expelled from
the Consulta. How�s that for democratic! If they do sign, but at a later
date do not �respect� the points of the Statement, they will be immediately
expelled, with the media clamour that will follow.
The Statement is a severe preventive disciplinary
measure and mechanism, and, therefore, if any Muslim community wishes to be
recognised by the State, to be accepted as a legitimate interlocutor, they have
no choice but to acquiesce.
What, therefore, went on at the meeting, and what is
contained in the �Statement of Values�? From today�s papers, it seems that the
initial encounter was basically to discipline the UCOII and to express dissent
to the advertisement they wrote. This is what the news dispatches say at the
moment, although the point of the meeting is to establish the articles of the
document, which includes the recognition of the uniqueness of the Shoah
(that word is used, as a matter of fact, even though there were also many
non-Jewish victims of Nazi crimes).
Mario Scioloja, Vice President of the Italian branch
of the World Muslim League adds, � . . . and I think that in addition to the
uniqueness of the Shoah we have to consider appeals for peace in the
Middle East, the right of Israel to exist, respect for women. It will be
important that everyone does sign.�
Improvements to the statement are offered by Magdi
Allam, Vice Editor of Corriere della Sera, Italy�s leading mainstream
national paper, prophet of the �moderate� Muslim, staunch defender of Israel,
and a man whom I heard with my own ears state at a book presentation that the
pacifists of the world were the cause of the war in Iraq, because they gave
Saddam false confidence that peace would prevail. In a way, he was right. Peace
will never prevail, no matter how much the people want it, and they were given
a good lesson that it is utterly useless to dissent from the superpower and its
lapdog. These powers do what they wish in spite of world public opinion, even
their own.
Allam suggests as an article of the Statement, �The
recognition of the right of all, including the right of Israel to exist and the
condemnation of every appeal for its destruction, even under the form of the
evil proposal to substitute Israel with a single Palestinian State where
Muslims, Christians and Jews live together.�
It is pretty shocking that he sees living together in
peace and democracy as evil, but this is a moderate for you . . . He continues,
�The condemnation of Palestinian terrorism perpetrated by Hamas, the Islamic
Jihad and other groups, of the Lebanese terrorism of Hezbollah and other
groups, of the terrorism of Al Qaeda, the Talibans and other groups who
massacre Muslims in the world and attack the multinational (yes, you read it
right, he wrote multinational and not international) forces in Iraq and
Afghanistan.� (Corriere
della Sera, 28 August 2006, Magdi Allam, �Islam, Sostantivo plurale
italiano.�)
Naturally, if a non-Arab invading force kills Arabs,
they are not terrorists, even though the techniques sure terrorise the civilian
population and make them the first victims. It seems as though there will be no
space for the Italian Muslims to publicly support the right of resistance that
is guaranteed by international law to an occupied nation against its invader.
Too bad!
Therefore, there will first be stigmatisation for not
adhering to the document, even if Arabs are forced to recognise Israel when
Palestinians� right to exist is still unrecognised. Nor are they to consider
that their own �Shoah,� the Nakba, is unique. They had better
always remember the correct hierarchy of victims, under threat of being
considered aligned with terrorists.
Much more significant than the pressure put upon the
Muslims to sign a document proclaiming the values of Israel as being primary
and more vital and urgent than the interests and history of the many people
they represent, is the message being sent to the general public. Not only
Muslims, but all Italians are being told to negate the evidence of the reality
of the destruction that our own soldiers are about to walk into and witness
firsthand. Everyone is being informed that there will be a price to pay for
expressing criticism of Israel. One dare not do it!
It looks as if the groups will sign the Consulta
document, with the exception of the UCOII. I think that they realised that
dissent just doesn�t pay in the war waged in the mass media. It is not worth
the stress for them, and they want to keep their affairs private and not
constantly be threatened with expulsion and ostracised from the Italian power
community. What is worrying is that even without the pressure, I fear that
sooner or later all Italians will be required to sign such a thing. This may be
the first time that an opinion is forced upon a category, and it possibly
serves as a testing ground for other such initiatives.
A question remains: judging the recent events in
Lebanon and Gaza, the Italian public doesn�t seem to share the view of the
Internal Affairs Ministry. They seem shocked and disturbed by the invasion of
Lebanon. I don�t think that they would have otherwise tolerated the deployment
of so many soldiers into new theatres of war, given the recent Italian victims
in Iraq and Afghanistan that have rocked public opinion. They would only
approve if they felt that what was going on had to be stopped at all costs;
that it was a threat to world peace. If the European survey that caused a
scandal a few years back, where Europeans expressed in an overwhelming majority
that they considered Israel to be a major threat to world peace were to be made
again, would these opinions be censored even in the reality of the war Israel
has waged on Lebanese soil? Would we be called anti-Semites again if we simply
declare what is before the eyes of the entire world as an act of war, and,
therefore, a threat to world peace, despite the heavy campaign of lies and
propaganda to make us see Lebanon as the aggressor?
Italian intellectual Pietro Citati has declared that
he was a Cassandra, having predicted four years ago that there would be an
upsurge in anti-Semitism in Europe. For Italy he refers to the clearly
psychologically disturbed Umberto Bossi of the Northern League party as well as
the UCOII and the marchers at the peace rally.
In the leading nationwide Centre-Left paper, La
Repubblica, on a front-page editorial (not to be outdone by the pro-Israeli
rhetoric and hyperbole of Angelo Panebianco of the Corriere della Sera
of the same date) he writes, �Despite the indifference and the hostility of the
Europeans, I don�t believe Israel will ever disappear from the face of the
Earth. Disappearing much sooner will be Osama bin Laden, the president of Iran,
the students of a criminal like Khomeini, the leader of Hezbollah, the
anti-Semites of Europe, to whatever sort they belong. The Jews have a gift,
that we Catholics don�t possess, or that we possess in different ways. With
passion and avidity, they love the world: the �red� and the �blue,� the �fig�
and the �vine,� travels, books to read and to write, commerce, riches: yet,
they do not belong entirely to the Earth. With a part of themselves, they live
elsewhere, where Shekinah, the feminine face of God, wanders in exile,
sometimes emanating a pallid lunar light, other times intoning a music that is
even more crystalline, shrill and triumphant.� (La Repubblica, 28 August 2006, Pietro Citati, �Il nuovo
antisemitismo.�)
If the complete lack of judgement of Israel�s actions
is any indication, here bordering on an ode to its glory, pretty soon, it won�t
be sufficient to stop criticising Israel, we will have to start adoring the
specialness, giftedness and otherness of the Jews, which these authors
constantly confuse with Israel when it serves their purposes, and we will be
urged to admire their triumph, despite our better judgement, and despite the
horror and carnage that we witness with our own eyes.
Mary Rizzo lives in Italy. Her blog is peacepalestine.blogspot.com and
she contributes as a translator to www.tlaxcala.es.