Italian president Giorgio Napolitano is to open a Turin book fair Thursday honoring Israeli writers despite Muslim calls for a boycott. The five-day fair is one of the largest in Europe and marks the 60th anniversary of the renewal of the Jewish state.

Muslim intellectuals this week launched a seminar on "ethnic cleansing in Palestine" in order to counter the fair, according to theFrench news agency AFP and the European Jewish Press. Muslim academics charged that the Italian president's appearance at the book fair "shows that this is a political event and not only a cultural event."  President Napolitano replied, "Criticizing Israel's policies is completely legitimate. What is unacceptable is any position that denies the legitimacy of the state of Israel... and its right to exist in peace and security."