Federica Iaria was born in Genoa in 1980 and has lived in Verona for thirty years. She is happily married to a poet and artist, with whom she fights misinformation about neurodegenerative diseases hand in hand. Since October 7, 2023 he has created numerous amateur documentaries which have also participated in film festivals, written articles, translated books and organized events. She says of her: «I am a Zionist, Jewish, proud and stubborn». For Panorama.it he produced the docufilm “Frammenti d’Orrore”.
How did your commitment to documenting what happens, of which you also created an unpublished version for Panorama.it, come about?
«Because I feel that silence is almost as guilty as misinformation. First of all from the pain felt in seeing that immediately after the barbaric massacre of October 7th, there were those in the world who were celebrating, there were already those who were in denial. The clear example of two fundamental aspects in the treatment of the topic. The first is the lack of knowledge of the history of the birth of the state of Israel, poisoned by the propaganda narrative to the detriment of the documented and incontrovertible reality. Nobody, or very few, know of the multiple NOs to the division into two states always coming from the Arab countries, that the first article of the Hamas statute is the annihilation of Israel, as for the Arab League the non-acceptance of Israel’s existence has been sanctioned in Sudan in 67, which is nothing other than the slogan “From the river to the see”, sung without even being understood. The second aspect is the latency of anti-Semitism, disguised as anti-Zionism. The timely adoption of double standards in evaluating every decision of Israel, surgically dissected, with a judgment, also encouraged by bodies such as the UN, never applied to other conflicts”.
What were the most difficult moments during the making?
«The emotional one of going through the tunnel of horrors, in search of images and testimonies that could be a desperate cry for the world to listen to. The personal one: linked to threats, insults, denigrations in an attempt to make those who wanted to see my work aware, that October 7th is a fundamental aspect of the current reality and which must be recognized in all respects as a declaration of war . Finally, the political one, the noisy silence of many and the non-explanation, especially to the television viewer, of the enormous difference between a democracy (also contested for months in the streets) and a terrorist organisation. They cannot be compared, even in the world of hallucinations. In any of the realities with a strong terrorist basis towards which Israel is directing its efforts today, with the sacrifice of its IDF youth, no one is free. First and foremost the people inhabiting those lands, subjugated and the first victim of a total absence of democracy. We have seen well in Iran that, unlike Tel Aviv, a protest is repressed in blood, that there is a moral police that kills you for a misplaced veil, that civilians are openly blood to be shed for the cause (words of Ismail Haniyeh himself compared to Gaza). These are things that must be weighed in understanding that terrorism is the enemy to be defeated, for Israel but also for the West, because one cannot have such a short memory as to forget the Bataclan, Nice, Madrid, New York etc. that have allowed to see up close how blood can be shed by shouting Allah u Akbar (in stark contrast to the Koran, but only through forced interpretation), or the hypocrisy of not accepting that Israel is the outpost that fights on behalf of terrorism in the West, due to prejudices linked to lack of knowledge or preconception towards Zionism/Judaism.”
What was October 7, 2023 for you?
«The defeat of reason, title of the first action in which I was actively involved for the commemoration of six months since the massacre. The loss of moral compass. The emergence of a need, at school level, for a clear and non-biased explanation of the facts by teachers. Tears for Noa and Gidi, 27 and 24 years old, whom I have known since they were kids, great-grandchildren of a survivor of Bergen Belsen, who returned home weighing 24 kg, who returned from the Nova Festival even lighter, in plastic bags containing their ashes, 11 days after they called their parents at 6.30am on 7 October to say goodbye. The pain of their grandmother Eva, my dear friend. It means hearing from my friend Angelica Calò, from Kibbutz Sasa exhausted by the continuous sirens and her children at the front, feeling the shock of a country that has always had to survive wars of attack, since 15 May 1948 when the veterans of the holocaust for a war of Independence resulting from the attack of all the surrounding countries. It means understanding that the world doesn’t know history, doesn’t want to know it because propaganda is simpler. It’s about the need to do my part, to find the strength, even when I think there is no longer any between work and family, to NEVER stop, but rather act more and more incisively. For counter-information, for the honor of the victims and hostages towards which everyone’s hearts should be turned”
Now Federica Iaria and Elisa Garfagna, podcasters, advertising and film dubbers who lent her voice in the documentary produced exclusively for our publications, are about to give life to the “Zionist Women’s Open Movement”. We ask them why now and what goals they set themselves.
«The Open Zionist Women’s Movement, the acronym for which is MADS, which means crazy in English, precisely because in this moment it takes a lot of courage and perhaps a pinch of madness to expose oneself, is a movement whose key words are Open and Zionism. Open because registration is not only reserved for women, but for every gender, sex, religious confession, political thought, so much so that the same council will be made up of women and men. Zionist because it is still a movement that wants to help Israel, from understanding its history to acting actively. This is where the concept of Women comes in, because many of the activities we want to implement will be aimed at women, who on 7 October were massacred in every possible form, in Israel physically and in denial of what happened, universally. Because every woman must feel affected if violence against another woman is denied, wherever she is in the world. We do not want to be “politically correct” at any cost, but to give substance to Action, to solidarity. Bringing back, whoever wants to hear, the path of history, rather than the distortion of reality. This is also why the theme of Training and Education is part of our mission statement, knowledge has always been the key to opening every door. And the door of our Movement is wide open to all those who wish to oppose those who today say that we must go from house to house to mark the homes of Jews, to those who demonstrate with placards against Holocaust survivors, to those who take sides behind propaganda of which he does not know the true meaning, of those who, with conscience or not, side with terrorism. We are in the bureaucratic finalization phase for the actual launch of the Movement, for which we have had very positive media feedback. We therefore hope to be able to do our part, our moral duty, because even just one person who can delve into such complex issues and come out structured in their own conscience is a great victory”
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