Every year, Paris hosts a salon du livre (book festival) based around a country. The Salon hosts discussions on literature and with authors from that particular nation. This year's honored country was Israel.
The choice was widely criticized in the Arab world. Critics included not only the predictable ones like the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Arab governments but also Arab-language publishers and writers and even a few prominent Israeli literary figures. Many called for a boycott of the Salon.
The prominent French paper Le Monde ran good editorial on the topic. The daily, hardly an apologist for the Israeli government, blasted these boycott calls.
It noted that it was not the country that's being honored at the Salon but its writers and its literature. The paper also pointed out that these governments weren't in any position to talk, as the Arab world has some of the worst records on respect for freedom of the press and of expression.
It pointed out the assinine illogic of demanding a boycott of a festival where 'most of the Israeli authors who are participating are among the strong advocats of the cause of a viable and independent Palestinian state, next to the state of Israel.'
The French daily condemned as 'absurd' and 'shocking' these attempts to 'hold literature hostage to politics.' Boycotting books, the paper concluded, 'has always been the weapon of dictators.'
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