Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Gad Lerner will be in Oristano tomorrow – Wednesday 19 June – to talk about his latest book, “Gaza: hate and love for Israel”, published by Feltrinelli. It will be the first of the previews of the third edition of Propagations Festival. From 9pm, at the Garau theatre, Lerner will talk with the journalist Vito Biolchini, artistic director of the festival, and will propose to the public the themes and questions that animate his painful reflection on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “What future can this Israel have? What function can the Jewish trend of tolerance perform?”. And above all: “Can you live in heaven knowing that you have hell next door?”.
The meeting will be broadcast live on the Facebook page of the festival which – after some previews in July – will enter the heart of its third edition between 20 and 24 August, in Oristano, Mandriola and Arborea. The event is organized by the Heuristic association with the support of the Sardinia Region and the Municipalities of Oristano and San Vero Milis.
“Gaza: hatred and love for Israel” is a sincere and necessary book so as not to end up enrolled in the stereotypes of the opposing factions, a prelude to every war, and is inspired by the well-known episode of Samson, who according to the Bible died in Gaza, buried among the rubble of a house together with the enemies, those Philistines from whom Palestine took its name.
“It is from Gaza that the Hamas militias crossed the border on 7 October 2023 to carry out the most terrible massacre of Jews in Israel since the Shoah,” explains Lerner, “and on the inhabitants of Gaza that the Netanyahu government unleashed a bloody military offensive , resulting in discrediting Israel’s reputation and isolating it like never before.”
In short, Gaza, as well as a place, has become the symbol of a dispute that takes on a cultural and moral dimension in the world. Gad Lerner deals with the identity fanaticism that has infected the two warring peoples. As a Jew for whom Israel meant salvation, he must deal with the exclusivism and tribalism of the Zionist right. The splits in Israeli society, the withdrawal into themselves of the Jewish communities of the diaspora, which feel misunderstood and hurl accusations of anti-Semitism at those who show solidarity with the Palestinians, bring him back to the crucial questions that Primo Levi was already asking himself, including the most dramatic . “Can you live in heaven knowing that you have hell next door?”.
Born in Beirut to Jewish parents who settled in Palestine before the State of Israel was born, Gad Lerner arrived in Italy at the age of three, but remained stateless for a long time, obtaining Italian citizenship only in 1984. A journalist, he began collaborate with the newspaper Continuous fight (1976-1979) of which he is deputy director. In 1983 he joined the editorial staff of The Express as a correspondent and carries out numerous investigations. He made his debut as a writer in 1987 with “Operai” (Feltrinelli).
However, the activity that gives him great notoriety is television: first “Profondo Nord”, then “Milano, Italia”, again on Rai Tre, and on Rai Uno “Pinocchio”. He then returned to print journalism and from 1993 to 1996 was deputy director of La Stampa of Turin. In 2000 he was given the direction of Tg1, but his editorial choices were not shared and after a few months he resigned.
In 2001 he moved to La7 and in recent years has hosted the in-depth program “L’infedele”, while maintaining his collaboration with some important newspapers. Among his other publications for Feltrinelli we remember “L’infedele. A story of rebels and masters” and “We, Partisans: Memorial of the Italian Resistance”, edited together with Laura Gnocchi.
