SIDE BY SIDE: THE CULTURE OF PEACE TAHAR BEN JELLOUN AND LUCIANA CASTELLINA

Tahar Ben Jelloun talks with Luciana Castellina about his recent work published in Italy as L’urlo (ed. La nave di Teseo, 2024), an article written shortly after the October 7th attacks by Hamas. “I, an Arab and Muslim of traditional Moroccan birth, culture and education, cannot find the words to say how horrified I am by what the Hamas militants did to the Jews. Brutality, when it attacks women and children, becomes barbaric and has no excuse or justification. […] On the opposing front, the Palestinians in Gaza have been living under an embargo for over fifteen years and now have become acquainted with death in all its forms. […] This is the time of war, the time of retaliation and revenge, while we should be demanding an era of dialogue. Yet no one seems to glance in that direction.

Tahar Ben Jelloun burst on the literary scene with his novels The Sand Child and The Sacred Night. The solitude and uprooting of immigrants are central to his body of work, as in Solitaire and La plus haute des solitudes. The author has never failed to examine the world of the outsiders (see Harrouda and Moha le fou, Moha le sàge). Many of his titles address the hottest topics of the day, from 9/11 and the clash of civilizations (Racism Explained to My Daughter, On Terrorism, De l’Islam qui fait peur) to the Arab Spring (By Fire: Writings on the Arab Spring).