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When Conflict Spills Over: Identities, Memories, Politics and Representations of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Italy—The 1960s

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Languages of Discrimination and Racism in Twentieth-Century Italy

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Abstract

This essay investigates the manifold ways in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict spilled over in Europe in the 1960s, with a focus on Italy. The 1960s proved a crucial decade in the consolidation of juxtaposed memories, narratives, and identities for Israelis and Palestinians and the same happened in the Diaspora for Palestinians and Jews. Several factors shaped such a consolidation: memories of recent individual and collective traumas, the Eichmann trial, youth politics between 1967 and 1969, and, obviously, the Six Day War. Using hitherto unpublished primary sources collected in Italy, the UK, and the Netherlands, and oral history interviews with Palestinians in Italy and Italian Jews, I analyze how during this decade the Israeli-Palestinian conflict interlocked with local and national politics, and with perceived or real anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. This chapter suggests that Europe too was one of the theatres of this war, in terms of identity politics, collective traumatic memories of the Holocaust, grassroots mobilization, and also terrorism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Interview of the Author with Prof. Luciano Segre, Milan, 2 October 2010.

  2. 2.

    The National Archives, London (henceforth TNA), FCO 17/1622, NE 1/5, Acts of Violence by Arab Terrorist Organizations, 1972, Letter from P.G.H. Harwood to Mr. [Sidney?] Giffard, 11 September 1972.

  3. 3.

    On Zwaiter see the installation at the Venice Biennale of 2007 by Emily Jacir, https://electronicintifada.net/content/material-film-retracing-wael-zuaiter-part-1/7054 and https://electronicintifada.net/content/material-film-performance-part-2/7053, accessed 3 July 2021.

  4. 4.

    Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome (Central State Archive, henceforth ACS), GAB, 0162/PS, Telegram from the Prefecture of Parma to the Ministry of Interior, 9 June 1967.

  5. 5.

    https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/, accessed 3 July 2021.

  6. 6.

    ACS, MI, PS, Cat. G, b. 381.

  7. 7.

    Statute of GUPS in Italy, in ACS, GAB, 443/205801/V, General Affairs Foreigners’ Service [AA. GG. Serv. Stran.] to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 3 June 1971.

  8. 8.

    Unione Generale degli Studenti Palestinesi in Italia, Vietnam-Palestina https://www.palestineposterproject.org/taxonomy/term/570/poster-imaged-full?page=1, accessed 31 July 2021.

  9. 9.

    International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam (henceforth IISH), General Union of Palestine Students—L’union Generale des Etudianst (sic) de la Palestine, n.p.h., n.d., n.p. [p. 4].

  10. 10.

    Ivi, [p. 1].

  11. 11.

    Ivi; Fayez A. Sayegh, A Palestinian View, General Union of Palestine Students, n.p.h., n. d. [1970]; Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Milano, Affiche, Manifesti e caricature, Italia, Al Karameh, https://patrimonio.fondazionefeltrinelli.it/new-feltrinelli/storico/detail/manifestiaffiches/FF0000003681/al-karameh.html?jsonVal={%22jsonVal%22:{%22query%22:%22GUPS%22,%22fieldDate%22:%22dataNormal%22,%22_perPage%22:20}}#!prettyPhoto, accessed 28 July 2021.

  12. 12.

    ACS, GAB, 0230/PS, Registered mail from Prefecture of Modena to Ministry of Interior, 15 June 1967; ACS, GAB, 071236, Registered mail from Prefecture of Naples to Ministry of Interior, 13 June 1967; ACS, GAB, 0162/PS, Registered mail from Prefecture of Parma to Ministry of Interior, 9 June 1967; ACS, GAB, 3122/12, b. 16, Registered mail from Prefecture of Bologna to Ministry of Interior, 27 June 1967; ACS, GAB, 015222/67-Stranieri, Registered mail from Prefecture of Rome to Ministry of Interior, 10 June 1967; ACS, GAB, 2914/12B/5–6, Reserved registered mail from Prefecture of Turin to Ministry of Interior, 30 June 1967; ACS, GAB, 03402/PS, Telegram from Prefecture of Pisa to Ministry of Interior, 15 June 1967; ACS, GAB, 3114/12, b. 16, Registered mail from Prefecture of Bologna to Ministry of Interior, 27 June 1967; ACS, GAB, 10/3752 PS, Registered mail from Prefecture of Perugia to Ministry of Interior, 31 July 1967.

  13. 13.

    ACS, GAB, 443/184368/IV, General Affairs Foreigners’ Service [AA. GG. Serv. Stran.] to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 27 March 1969.

  14. 14.

    ACS, GAB, Telegram from Prefecture of Pisa to Ministry of Interior, 17 May1969; ACS, GAB, 441/012909-G-5/12/36 Very urgent reserved registered mail from General Affairs Foreigners’ Service [AA. GG. Serv. Stran.] to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 25 November 1969.

  15. 15.

    ACS, GAB, 443/184368/IV, double reserved file from General Affairs Foreigners’ Service [AA. GG. Serv. Stran.] to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 11 August 1969.

  16. 16.

    ACS, GAB, 441/012909-G.5/12/36, very urgent registered mail—reserved from General Affairs Foreigners’ Service [AA. GG. Serv. Stran.] to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 25 November 1969.

  17. 17.

    ACS, GAB, 443/184397/V, from General Affairs Foreigners’ Service [AA. GG. Serv. Stran.] to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 10 June 1969.

  18. 18.

    ACS, GAB, 1110/12B/5.6, reserved registered mail from the Prefecture of Turin to Ministry of Interior, 10 May 1969.

  19. 19.

    ACS, GAB, telegram from the Prefecture of Pisa Ministry of Interior, 17 May 1969.

  20. 20.

    ACS, GAB, 441/0932/G5/12/36, from General Affairs Foreigners’ Service [AA. GG. Serv. Stran.] to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 9 April 1970; ACS, GAB, 1/216 registered mail from the Prefecture of Pavia to Ministry of Interior, 22 January, 1970; ACS, GAB, 638/12.b.1, reserved registered mail from the Prefecture of Florence to Ministry of Interior 6 March 1970; ACS, GAB,11200/94, from General Affairs Foreigners’ Service [AA. GG. Serv. Stran.] to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 21 July 1970.

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  1. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venezia, Italy

    Marcella Simoni

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  1. Marcella Simoni
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  1. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venezia, Italy

    Marcella Simoni

  2. New York University Florence, Firenze, Italy

    Davide Lombardo

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Simoni, M. (2022). When Conflict Spills Over: Identities, Memories, Politics and Representations of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Italy—The 1960s. In: Simoni, M., Lombardo, D. (eds) Languages of Discrimination and Racism in Twentieth-Century Italy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98657-5_5

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