Following his statements on Israel, Zionism, and the Palestinian genocide, writer Erri De Luca was excluded from the inaugural address he was scheduled to give at the Salerno Literature Festival, scheduled for June 13-20. Il Mattino reports.

"The inaugural address was initially supposed to be given by Erri De Luca, a widely read and equally beloved author. But the inaugural address implies a certain agreement with those who commissioned it, at least with regard to the most tragic of issues: the civilian deaths in Gaza," the event's co-artistic director, Gennaro Carillo, told the newspaper.

"The inaugural address is the act that opens the festival and, in a certain sense, dictates its direction. This is why we decided to reconsider our original decision, also to avoid exploitation. There is no censorship: De Luca was invited anyway, albeit in a different section, but he chose to decline," adds Carillo.

"Zionism has become a derogatory term for Israeli politics," Erri De Luca said in an interview with ANSA on May 26. "Instead, for me, it's the political movement that worked for the establishment of the State of Israel. A Zionist is someone who believes in this right. Anyone who speaks of a two-state solution recognizes that one of them is Israel. Zionism is not expansionism, which instead betrays it."

De Luca also responded to those who criticized him for not using the term "genocide" in relation to the Gaza tragedy. "I don't use this term to describe the destruction of human lives in a conflict taking place within residential areas. In Gaza, the civilian population has been continually displaced, forced into refuge. A genocide would have left them there. Or let's extend the word genocide to the battles of Raqqa, Mosul, Mariupol, Aleppo."

(Unioneonline)

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