Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano in Rome amid a furore over the Turin book fair
© AFP Alberto Pizzoli

TURIN, Italy (AFP) - 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.

Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan said the fact that Napolitano will be the first head of state to open the fair, now in its 21st year, would make 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.

Napolitano is expected to arrive by helicopter along with Israeli novelist Abraham B. Yehoshua to cut the inaugural ribbon at 10:00 am (0800 GMT).

David Grossman, Amos Oz, Aaron Appelfeld and Meir Shalev will be among the other featured Israeli authors.

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."

The city of Turin where Italian President Giorgio Napolitano is set to open the city's controversial book fair
© AFP/File

And far-left activists burned Israeli and US flags after the traditional May Day march.

Meanwhile, Free Palestine is planning a protest on Saturday.

But 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 Turin'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'."

Organisers of the book fair say they expect some 300 people to take part in the Saturday protest, while activist Sergio Cararo of the Palestine Forum predicted there would be at least 10,000.

"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 told AFP.

Security has been tightened for this year's event in Turin, coming two months after the Paris book fair which was inaugurated by Israeli President Shimon Peres and marred by boycotts and a bomb threat that forced an hour-long evacuation of the venue.

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.

Sixty years on, Israel and the Palestinians remain locked in a seemingly intractable conflict.

Members of Rome's Jewish community celebrating Hanukkah in central Rome
© AFP/File Giulio Napolitano

More than 300,000 people visited last year's book fair in Turin, to be attended this year by some 1,400 publishers, both Italian and foreign, which director Rolando Picchioni said was an "absolute record."

The boycott call is not all one-sided.

Acclaimed Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai snubbed Paris and will not attend the Turin event, telling countercurrents.org that they were "purely another occasion for Israel to make propaganda and gain more support for its military occupation" of the Palestinian Territories.

©AFP