TURIN, Italy (AFP) — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano opened the prestigious Turin book fair in the northern city on Thursday amid Muslim anger over the choice of Israel as the event's guest of honour.
"No dialogue is possible if there is a refusal to recognise Israel," Napolitano said at Israel's special stand at the fair.
There can be no "rejection of the reasons for its birth (60 years ago) or of its right to exist in peace and security," he added.
Israel's stand was swamped by hundreds of people, many draped in the Israeli flag, with one group holding a banner that read: "I feel Jewish today."
"A special thanks with all my heart goes to President Napolitano for his strong position this year, after the calls over recent months to boycott the Book Fair because of Israel's presence," said Israeli Ambassador to Italy Gideon Meir at the fair's opening.
Like its Parisian counterpart in March, the Turin fair is honouring Israel on the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state's creation, sparking fresh Muslim protests and boycott calls.
Shortly after Napolitano's arrival, security forces prevented a small group of pro-Palestinian activists from unfurling a banner outside the venue, the ANSA news agency reported.
They moved to a side street to display the banner reading "No to Zionist Colonialism, Boycott Israel, Boycott the 2008 Book Fair."
Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan said the fact that Napolitano was the first head of state to open the fair, now in its 21st year, made it "a political and not a cultural event."
Ramadan, who is backing the boycott calls, is the grandson of Hassan El-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Prominent Israeli authors Abraham B. Yehoshua, David Grossman, Amos Oz, Aaron Appelfeld and Meir Shalev will be among those featured at the fair.
Ahead of the five-day expo, several Muslim writers, intellectuals and artists as well as the Free Palestine association staged a two-day protest seminar at the University of Turin titled "Western Democracies and Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine."
Meanwhile police said they had identified three far-left activists who burned Israeli and US flags after the traditional May Day march a week ago, the daily La Repubblica reported Thursday.
Turin's Chief Rabbi Alberto Moshe Somekh said Wednesday that the city had shown "great courage" in deciding to honour Israel.
At a special service in the city's main synagogue, he said the tribute marked not only the state of Israel's 60 years but also "4,000 years of our presence on the world stage as 'People of the Book'."
Free Palestine activist Sergio Cararo of the Palestine Forum told AFP the group had no protest plans for the opening day but predicted a turnout of at least 10,000 for a protest on Saturday.
"We asked the organisers and promoters for equal dignity for both Israelis and Palestinians, but no compromise was found, so we started the campaign to boycott," Cararo said.
Muslim critics say Israel should not be rewarded in this manner while it faces international outrage over its actions in the Palestinian territories.
Every year as Israel celebrates its anniversary, the Palestinians remember the some 700,000 of their fellow citizens who fled or were forced from their homes as the Jewish state was created and who, with their descendants, now form a UN-registered refugee population of more than 4.5 million.
More than 300,000 people visited last year's book fair in Turin, to be attended this year by some 1,400 exhibitors.
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