September October to defend democracies from denialism and anti-Semitism
Manifesto, objectives and first official presentations of the SetteOTTO association chaired by Stefano Parisi
The SetteOTTO association will be officially presented on January 21st in Rome (at 10.30 in Sala Umberto, via della Mercede 50) and on January 28th in Milan, at the Franco Parenti Theatre, as part of an event against anti-Semitism. The Rome event will be dedicated to the memory of Elio Carmi, the recently deceased designer and advertiser who designed the association's logo.
SetteOTTO was born on 5 December from the initiative of a group of people from the cultural world, who felt the moral obligation to act in the face of the demonization of Israel, the anti-Semitism of the streets and the denialism circulating about those tragic events. The other founders are: Stefano Parisi, who holds the role of president, Anita Friedman, Luigi Mattiolo and his wife Stefania Stefanelli, Matteo Mungari and his wife Celestina, Camilla Parisi, Bruno Sed, Elena Costantino, Beppe Lanzillotta, Giovanni Galassi, Paolo Capaccioni , Andrèe Ruth Shammah, Pigi Battista, Ilaria Borletti, Roberto Spada, Gabriele Albertini and Anna Borioni.
Below is the full text of the SetteOTTO association's manifesto:
The pogrom of 7 October 2023 perpetrated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Israel shocked the consciences of all those who care about and defend the civil, social, human and political heritage of liberal democracies. This is the result of a long and brutal strategy of terror that affected the civilian population and was fueled by ferocious hatred, obscene and explicit claims of "death to the Jews" with the aim of erasing the "Zionist entity". Crimes accompanied in the West by years of irresponsible minimization, by inadmissible justifications as well as by cowardly acquiescence, to the point of legitimizing Islamic terrorism. Important sectors of our communication and education systems have, for their part, adopted ambiguities, manipulations and deceptions that are expressed in evasive languages capable of distorting reality, validating counterfeit sources and tolerating the most aberrant theses to the point of transforming victims into executioners . From 7 October, no one will ever again be able to say – like many after the Shoah – that they don't know why today we were all witnesses of the abyss, overwhelmed by the images that depict it, by the heartbroken screams of the victims and the merciless screams of the executioners.
Freedom of thought and information, freedom of religion, of assembly and association, freedom of private and family life, security, justice, legal certainty, are not abstract concepts nor eternal achievements and we recognize in the State of Israel the outpost of those values in a region where they are either denied or condemned to a fragile survival. The attacks suffered by the Jewish State, which has full legitimacy to exist, live within safe borders and defend itself, directly concern our communities and each of us individually, whether man or woman, young or old, believer or atheist.
Defending today those freedoms that cost the lives of millions of people who preceded us means fighting the hypocrisies, ambiguities and falsehoods that for years in the West have contributed to demolishing the founding values of our democracies, justifying Islamic terrorism and encouraging anti-Semitism.
We created the SetteOTTO association as aware and responsible citizens, intent on fighting denialism and false news, pursuing the glorification of terrorism and anti-Semitism, countering totalitarian ideologies, promoting the study and defense of the roots and values of our democracies.
To join the association www.setteOTTO.com .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/setteottobre-per-difendere-le-democrazie-dal-negazionismo-e-dallantisemitismo/ on Sat, 13 Jan 2024 10:16:32 +0000.