Boycotting the Nation that Gave the Most to Humanity: Giulio Meotti
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/16481#.VOHGrS7IhyI
The France Presse journalist asked Ismail Kadaré: “But here, in Jerusalem, the Palestinians could object to you that their freedom is restricted”. And the Albanian writer and poet Kadaré replied: “I come from one of the few countries in the world that helped the Jews during the war. That’s why I never thought of this other problem (of the Palestinians)”.
Many people were disappointed by Kadaré’s behaviour, especially those who wanted to see this most famous Albanian writer boycotting the ceremony in which he received the Jerusalem Prize. But Kadaré didn’t submit to anti-Semitic public opinion, unlike British writer Ian McEwan, who accepted the prize three years ago, but also used the ceremony to preach to the Israelis.
Leftist, Muslim and a candidate every year to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Ismail Kadaré had all the requisite characteristics to embarrass the Israelis. There was also a precedent: South African writer Nadine Gordimer, who refused the prize for political reasons. Instead, Kadaré said that Israel faces “the danger of disappearance”.
The Jews in Israel are now the “People of the Books”. In no other country, even those on a high cultural level, is there a hunger for culture like there is in Israel.
Kudos to Mr. Kadaré.
But the world’s most important writers are eradicating Israel, using ink and paper. On bookshelves in the West, you can see an immense number of books which wipe the Jewish State off the map.
It is paradoxical, to say the least, that today the main “enemy” of Western culture is Israel. Defined “the People of the Book” for having donated the Bible to the world, the Jews in Israel are now the “People of the Books”. In no other country, even those on a high cultural level, is there a hunger for culture like there is in Israel.
It is fascinating and surprising to see the members of a kibbutz laying down the tools of work in the fields, cleaning off the dust, riding a bike, car or truck, and going to a conference to participate in a debate between the public and writers. In the streets of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem, but even in the more modest villages, it is surprising to see the number of libraries and bookstores, sometimes more frequently than the clothing stores of the West.
This is Israel: the country with the highest ratio of university degrees to population in the world, the country with the world’s second highest number per capita of new books and the country with more museums per capita than any other country.
The cultural boycott of Israel is thus much more offensive, because it punishes the people which contributed the most to humanity in terms of culture. That is why these literary anti-Semites must realize that their writings, those which wipe Israel off the map, will, in turn, be erased from our consciousness.
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