Alessandro Ruben, President of Italy's ADL, on Israel Boycott

It was not meant to be political, but with the Arab states and their Socialist stooges involved, the fair has now devolved into a full blown political farce.
This is just a book fair celebrating culture in literature, and has nothing to do with politics, regardless of which side of the political divide one finds themself. If the Arabs and their dutiful socialist, dhimmi henchmen had their way, Israel would be banned from sporting events as well.

Kudos to Alessandro Ruben, the president of Italy's anti-defamation league:

"We are very concerned about the climate of cultural intolerance shown on one side of the Italian Left which has already announced the boycott of the Turin Book Fair dedicated this year to the state of Israel," Ruben said." Apart from the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel, this year is also the terrible and sad anniversary of "Kristallnacht" (or night of broken glass) when in 1938 through the initial destruction of books and Jewish culture, National Socialism began the anti-Jewish persecution."

"You would have thought we should no longer promote actions that behind the guise of a presumed political critique are in reality hiding the seeds of discrimination and cultural intolerance that today still strike Israelis and Jews.

Ruben said it was no longer tolerable for Italy, the fatherland of democracy, tolerance and rights, to be represented abroad, like it was with the boycott of the Pope at La Sapienza University, as a country which lacks elementary principles of dialogue between cultures."