Researcher Patrick Zaki faces backlash in Italy for solidarity with Palestine, criticism of Netanyahu

Researcher Patrick Zaki traveled to Rome last week to launch a new book he wrote after his release from prison in Egypt.

But upon arrival in Italy, the country where he got his master’s degree and from which he received popular and state support for freedom from imprisonment in Egypt, Zaki found that the sentiment of both the Italian public and officials toward him had totally changed. The reason? He criticized Israel.

Following tweets in which he strongly condemned statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in connection to Israel’s war on Gaza, which has claimed the lives of 2,329 Palestinians per the latest estimate, many parties in Italy have turned against Zaki, while events related to his book launch are being canceled left and right, he tells Mada Masr.

It’s the latest in a series of incidents that have targeted nationals from the region and other sympathizers with Palestinian people in Europe amid a political alignment behind Israel, he says.

As Zaki explains, “I wrote about what is happening in Gaza and I called Netanyahu a serial killer.” He was commenting on a warning issued to Gaza Strip residents by the Israeli prime minister last week to “leave now” as the Israeli Defense Forces launched its offensive on the blockaded enclave. Israel has cut off water, food and electricity supplies to Gaza as it pummels the population with airstrikes that have also struck the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza — the only entrance to the strip not controlled by Israel — with no humanitarian aid able to enter the strip thus far.

“When a serial killer tries to convince the international community that he respects international conventions to legalize the killing of civilians. where can they go!!!” Zaki wrote on X last week.

“After that, all the right wing and Israel supporters in Italy turned against me and started attacking me on all sides,” he says.

The condemnations and online abuse did not come just from the Italian right wing. There were parties that had previously shown solidarity with Zaki during the three years he spent in and out of detention in Egypt for his human rights activism who also jumped on the wagon, he says. 

“I was scheduled to appear with Italy’s biggest talk show host, Fabio Fazio — he’s like their Amr Adib — but now he has postponed it, saying he will host me ‘as soon as possible,’” the researcher says. Zaki was meant to be the main guest for the first episode of the show’s new season on Sunday before the booking was called off.

The Turin Book Fair was also scheduled to hold an event for Zaki’s book, Dreams and Illusions of Freedom: My Story. But missionary organization Sermig’s Arsenal of Peace, which was originally due to host the event, asked the book fair’s organizers to change the venue, he says. While the event will go ahead elsewhere, the director of the book fair distanced herself from Zaki in comments to the media.

Similarly, the mayor of Brescia has revoked Zaki’s invitation to the opening of the Brescia Peace Festival, and his book events in the city were canceled. "His words on Israel do not represent the message that the city wants to convey," the mayor told Italian media.

Zaki notes that he’s not alone. In the United Kingdom, the Palestinian Festival of Literature said on Thursday that it was forced to cancel the launch of a book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: A Palestine Story, by Jewish-American writer Nathan Thrall, at the request of the Metropolitan Police, which cited “security concerns.”

This came a day after the cancellation of the annual PalMusic UK concert that was scheduled to take place at Southwark Cathedral, a statement by the festival said.

In Germany, an award ceremony at the Frankfurt Book Fair that was set to honor the novel Minor Detail by Palestinian author Adania Shibli, which tells the true story of the 1949 rape and murder of a Palestinian Bedouin girl by Israeli soldiers, was canceled on Friday by German literary association Litprom, which said the decision was “due to the war in Israel.” In response to the cancellation, the Sharjah Book Authority said on Saturday it withdrew its participation in this year’s edition of the fair.

Zaki describes the trend, repeated across Europe since the start of the war over a week ago, as perhaps “the biggest turn from Europe against Arabs and pretty much against any sympathizers with the Palestinians” that he has seen. “It’s an assault on human rights and freedom of speech and expression,” he says.

Patrick Zaki was arrested in February 2020 upon his arrival at Cairo International Airport from Italy, where he was pursuing a master’s degree in gender studies, and was later referred to court in September 2021 for publishing an essay about Coptic affairs in Egypt. He was held in remand detention for nearly two years, during which there was an international campaign for his freedom before being released in December 2021 pending completion of the trial. In July 2023, the trial concluded with Zaki being rearrested and sentenced to three years in prison before he received a pardon from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. In his new book, Zaki speaks about his imprisonment and his human rights activism in Egypt.