The cartoonist’s announcement on social media: “It is not a competition of radicality, no lesson or moral judgment towards those who will go to Lucca and will do so in the way they deem most appropriate. And I have never thought that peoples and individuals coincided with their governments”
“Unfortunately, the patronage of the Israeli embassy over Lucca Comics represents a problem for me.” Thus the cartoonist Michele Rech, aka Zerocalcare, announces on social media that he will abandon Lucca Comicsthe event scheduled from 1 to 5 November.
“I know that the one on the poster is just a symbol – he underlines – but for many people dear to me that symbol currently represents the fear of not seeing the sun rise tomorrow morningthe rubble under which their loved ones are buried, the threat of dying trapped in that open-air prison where so many boys and girls were born and raised without ever being able to leave”, he continues, explaining that he doesn’t understand how it is “It is possible that a cultural event of this importance does not question the opportunity to collaborate with the representation of a government that is perpetrating war crimes in defiance of international lawI honestly can’t provide an explanation.”
“It is not a radical competition – he adds – and on my part there is no moral lesson or judgment towards those who will go to Lucca and he will do it in the way he deems most appropriate, above all it is not a challenge to the presence of the two authors of the poster Asaf and Tomer Hanuka, who I hope will be able to be there and who will feel at home, because I never thought that peoples and individuals coincided with their governments. I hope that one day there will also be Palestinian cartoonists who cannot leave their country at the moment.”
Source-www.adnkronos.com