Israeli Ambassador to Italy Yonatan Peled criticized Italy’s decision Sunday morning to exclude Israel from the country’s main tourism fair after it announced yesterday that it has canceled the participation of the Israeli booth in the exhibition to be held in October.
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“We believe that it is ethically and morally unacceptable today to offer places of war, terror, and death as holiday destinations,” the mayor of Rimini explained in a social media post. The decision, according to the statement, was made “in light of the positions of the municipality of Rimini and the region.”
The Italian exhibition group informed the Israel Tourism Bureau that “the conditions for their participation in the event in question have ceased to exist.”
The Israeli Ambassador took to X after the announcement, slamming Italy for the move and criticizing its engagement with “exploiting political ideologies used to attack Israel.”
“The decision to exclude the Israeli Tourism Authority from the TTG fair in Rimini represents yet another intrusion by political ideology that exploits every opportunity to use attacks against Israel for electoral propaganda purposes, heedless of the serious effects that such decisions have on cultural, religious, and business relations between Italy and our country,” Peled posted on X.
“Every year, Israel is visited by hundreds of thousands of Italians who, for work, tourism, or religious reasons, appreciate our destination. Israel also represents a significant influx of incoming tourism and business for Italy,” he added.
“We strongly condemn this push toward isolation and the constant attitude of aggression toward Israel, which fuels the manifestations of antisemitism we are witnessing these days and strengthens the terrible terrorist and destabilization strategy of Hamas and other organizations linked to it,” he wrote.