Solidarity with Palestine at Bologna Children's Book Fair
Open letter dated 21 January 2024
To the organisers of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair,
As illustrators, authors and publishers dedicated to creating meaningful and beautiful books for children, we have come together to highlight an urgent and pertinent issue.
The Bologna Children’s Book Fair celebrates the very best of children’s literature in all its diversity. The knowledge, camaraderie and inspiration gained at the fair is nothing short of magic. We also know that the fair not only highlights the brightness of childhood, but honours its dark moments. In 2022, BCBF stood with the world in acknowledging the suffering in Ukraine with an impressive display of art and books from the region that was (and still is) exacting serious and lasting impacts on Ukraine’s children, and continues to shape their stories. It also suspended Russia from participating due to its role in the aggression.
This show of solidarity is important because it is at the very essence of our work as children’s authors, illustrators and publishers, to champion the rights of children, to nourish their minds, to honour their creativity and the protect them from harm.
Currently, there is a war on Palestine which is affecting children at such an unprecedented scale that it has been described by doctors, journalists and UN aid workers as a war on children.
In 100 days of war:
10,000 children have been killed and 30,000 have been orphaned.
More than 1000 children have had amputations, some without anaesthetics.
Hospitals where children seek treatment, including newborn babies requiring incubators, are targeted in bombing or raided.
Almost all the children are denied education as schools are targeted in bombing (even with families inside).
Majority of children have been displaced from their homes, many having to walk the length of the Gaza strips to ‘safe areas’ where bombardments still continue.
Majority of children live in tents, and some have died from the winter cold.
Majority of children do not have access to clean water, making gastrointestinal infections rife.
Majority of children are starving.
Bombardments occur every day and throughout the night, terrorising and traumatising children.
This horrific list is not designed to minimise the effects of war on men, women and the elderly - indeed, all aspects of life in Gaza and the occupied West Bank are devastated. Nor is it designed to overshadow the experience of children in conflicts elsewhere. However, it plays an important role in highlighting how unparalleled this war is to anything that we know, and therefore our support must be urgent, universal, and whole-hearted.
Solidarity for Palestine and for humanity has already spread widely across creative communities. We, the undersigned, would like to urge BCBF to join us in taking a stand and showing the Palestinian child whose books have are buried under rubble, whose play and story times have been taken from them, whose songs are drowned out by bombs, that they are not forgotten.
Palestine has been violently occupied by Israeli forces for 75 years. Palestinians have had their lands stolen, their rights stripped from them, and their people wrongfully detained, tortured and killed, and even dead bodies are mutilated.
Today, there is great destruction in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, but a chance for us to honour the spirit, resilience and innocence of the children outside of the besieged enclave. Please consider showcasing humanity and Palestinian solidarity at your fair, declaring your support for an immediate ceasefire in the meantime, and rallying the creative world by announcing it ahead of the event. We also urge you to suspend participation from the occupying state of Israel, which is carrying out these crimes against humanity with impunity, until Palestine is liberated.
Response from BCBF dated 31 January 2024
Dear Inda Ahmad Zahri, Sana AlFalasi and all,
We are following up on the open letter addressed to us that has come to our attention, for which we thank you.
Bologna Children’s Book Fair was born 61 years ago with the dream of fostering a worldview where the overcoming of all boundaries is possible.
Therefore, BCBF has consistently stood for peace and beside children worldwide, firmly believing in safeguarding their right to a future in every circumstance. It joins the calls for the end of every conflict, recognising books as bridges between cultures.
Now more than ever, the publishing industry – for children, youth and all readers – plays a vital role in building peace. Inspired by these values, the fair works to promote the highest quality in global literature and illustration. This commitment extends to its involvement with the Italian section of IBBY, where it holds the status of a founding member.
In this particularly challenging time, BCBF reaffirms its commitment to welcoming the participation of all publishers, authors and illustrators who wish to contribute in a peaceful, creative and positive manner to the larger publishing community, and to host speakers from all corners of the world. This is in keeping with the fair's long-standing spirit of dialogue and exchange.
To commemorate and share this commitment, BCBF, in collaboration with the United Nations SDG Book Club programme, invites all those attending the 61st edition of the fair to the Illustrators Café for a public reading of the articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Thank you very much for your kind letter and for your attention to this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Elena Pasoli
Director, Bologna Children’s Book Fair
Our response to BCBF dated 31 January 2024
Dear Elena and BCBF team,
Thank you for your letter of reply. We appreciate the time you have taken to read it through and contact us before we were able to present it to you formally, as we were still finalising the list and amassing signatures.
The entirety of our open letter spoke of solidarity with Palestine and provided, at least in summary, the numerous horrors that were committed against over ten thousand children that have been killed, and continue to affect and threaten close to a million children who are still living under bombardment.
Yet your letter of reply did not once address the plight of Palestinian children directly, and does not even contain the word Palestine.
There is a very specific genocide that is happening before our eyes - none of us can claim not to see the injustices in this day and age, especially while those living under siege are screaming for help with their mobile phones that they perilously charge and venture out onto high areas just to get signal so that the world can know the truth. The youngest of them, Lama Jamous, is only 9 years old. Official reporters for TV news channels are targeted and killed and just this week we saw one, Amr al Dahoudi, collapse while on air. People in Gaza are starving.
So to glaze over this very issue that 1795 of us have earnestly brought to your attention, even with your kind assurance of peace for all and the invitation of reading the Convention on the Rights of the Child, falls short of the urgent solidarity and action, even symbolically, that one would direct towards an ongoing genocide.
Your silence with regard to Palestine is jarring in light of your recent support of the people of Ukraine, evident by your 2022 statement condemning Russian aggression and suspending their participation, and followed up with the 2023 'Illustrated Ukraine' exhibition.
Whether by the measure of the bold colours of BCBF, or by the nuanced storytelling in your featured books and illustrations, your current stance speaks of a double standard which is at odds with your quote that ‘BCBF has consistently stood for peace and beside children worldwide, firmly believing in safeguarding their right to a future in every circumstance.’
We deeply regret that this opportunity to show solidarity for so many children will be missed.
In solidarity for a free Palestine and an end to genocide,
Inda Ahmad Zahri and Sana AlFalasi
on behalf of 1795 signatories to the open letter to BCBF.
