by David Fiorentini
“It is not pacifism to plead for a ceasefire by displaying the flag of only one side and accusing the other, unspeakably, of “genocide” in contempt of history and truth”.
So comments the Jewish community of Livorno what happened at the Goldoni Theater on 26 April at the end of Puccini’s Turandot, when the cast gathered on stage displaying the “Ceasefire, Stop Genocide” banner with a Palestinian flag.
“It is not pacifism to ignore the fate of the Israelis and others kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October – insists the press release -. It is not pacifism to look the other way or take refuge in twisted and cryptic statements, in order not to recognize the rapes that have occurred and are taking place on kidnapped Israeli women; the trade by Palestinians, as macabre trophies, of the severed heads of victims of Hamas’ aggression; the rockets, drones and missiles that today, with the complicity of powerful allies, rain down on Israel.”
The mayor of the Tuscan capital Luca Salvetti did not condemn the episode, citing precedents at La Scala in Milan and reiterating the municipal administration’s line of displaying only the peace flag, without the Israeli one.
An attitude defined as “vain” and “unlikely” by the local Jewish community, since what took place at the Goldoni Theater was a reminder of “prejudice, disguised as pacifism, against Israel” and “a mere political propaganda operation”.
Words which are echoed by those of the Italy-Israel Association of Livorno, which through its Facebook page denounces “an action outside the cultural, political and institutional context and with the exposure of a message completely imposed on the public present, who was theater just to see an opera, without any possibility of cross-examination or replication of a different position.”
